Gardaí call for introduction of anti-stab vests

Gardaí today reiterated their call for anti-stab vests to be introduced before lives were lost on duty.

The issue came to the forefront last month when two young gardaí were stabbed, one critically, when they entered a house in Raheny in Dublin.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said policing was a very dangerous profession which required proper equipment.

“If the members in Raheny had the protection of anti-stab vests, we could be in a situation where neither of those members would have been injured; the young man who nearly lost his life would not have sustained such a severe injury. Is this not gross negligence on the part of the minister?” asked the editorial in the Garda Review, the journal of the GRA.

Last month, an English policeman survived a shotgun blast at point-blank range because he was wearing a stab vest.

PC David Lomas, 34, was shot during a routine call to the Lancashire home of Stephen Hensby, who later killed himself.

The GRA editorial said that it was nothing short of disgraceful that stab vests had not been provided in the current economic climate.

In the incident last month, gardaí David Comer, aged 30, from Galway city, and James Hendricks, aged 27, from West Cork, were both attacked, with Comer losing six pints of blood from stab wounds to his chest and back.

Superintendent Nicholas Conneely of Raheny Garda station said the two men were both recovering from their injuries.

Two Chinese men who were arrested shortly after the attack were charged last month at the Dublin District Court with immigration offences and handling stolen property.

They were charged with abduction and seriously assaulting the guards at a sitting of Cloverhill District Court last week.

The two men remain in custody in Cloverhill Prison.

Gardaí have not been able to locate a third man believed to be involved in the attack.