Drugs squad member gets €1.1m for serious injuries

A young member of the Garda Drug Squad, who was repeatedly stabbed and seriously injured while affecting an arrest, was yesterday awarded what is believed to be a record €1.1m damages in the High Court.

Mr Justice Bernard Barton, in handing down his reserved judgment, told Paul O’Neill, counsel for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, that Garda Daryl Mullen had suffered serious physical injuries.

The judge said that the 38-year-old former garda of Slieve Bracken, Gortlee, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, had suffered a vicious assault and battery seven years ago while on duty in James St, Westport, Co Mayo.

Judge Barton said that, in August 2009, the then 32-year-old, formerly from Tuam, Co Galway, was on plainclothes duty with a unit of the drugs squad during a street festival in Westport.

He and his colleagues had been carrying out searches for illicit drugs and as he confronted a group acting suspiciously one of them produced a knife “which he drove into the left side of Garda Mullen’s abdomen”.

Judge Barton said the assailant, who was later charged and jailed, repeatedly stabbed Gda Mullen, causing what he described as “horrific internal injuries”.

He was discharged on the grounds of ill health.