Garda feared he would die

A Garda sergeant, who was stabbed in the arm as he tried to arrest a troublemaker outside a nightclub feared he was going to bleed to death, a court heard.

Sgt Aidan Doherty said the man produced a Stanley knife, lashed out at him and cut an artery in his right arm as he and security men tried to subdue him on the footpath outside Voodoo Night Club, in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, in August 2011.

He told Ms Justice Mary Irvine in a Garda Compensation Hearing in the High Court there was no first aid equipment available to him and he could only stem serious bleeding by applying pressure to his arm.

Judge Irvine awarded him €25,000 damages for pain and suffering to date and a further €20,000 damages to compensate for pain and suffering into the future, a total of €45,000.