Woman awarded €78k for gardaí entering her home to look for her boyfriend and carry out extradition warrant

The High Court has awarded €78,300 to a woman whose home was unlawfully entered by gardaí looking for her boyfriend who was wanted on an extradition warrant.

Polish national Judyta Rozmyslowicz (aged 32), of The Grove, Sallins, Co. Kildare, sued the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice for damages for personal injury, trespass and violation of her constitutional right to the inviolability of her home.

The defendants denied the claims.

In 2016, the High Court rejected her claim but she appealed and, in 2018, the Court of Appeal (CoA) overturned that decision.

The CoA found gardaí had not discharged the evidential burden, placed on them by law, of demonstrating they had a reasonable cause to believe her boyfriend was there to justify forcible entry.

The CoA sent the matter back to the High Court for assessment of damages.

Today, Mr Justice Michael Hanna awarded her €50,000 for injury to her foot when gardaí pushed her front door as she stood behind it and for distress and upset.

He awarded €25,000 for breach of her constitutional right along with some €3,300 for loss of earnings because she was out of work for six weeks with her injury.

The judge said she was an unfortunate victim of an unlawful act by gardaí in pursuit of a lawful order in relation to her boyfriend Sebastian Snaidy, who had breached a High Court bail over a warrant seeking his extradition to Poland.

The court heard gardaí called to the house in July 2012 after he had failed to turn up for a court appearance and an officer had seen his BMW car in the driveway of the house.

The judge said Ms Rozmyslowicz had told the truth and not sought to exaggerate her injury. She had impressed him as someone who came to court to tell the unvarnished truth.

Four gardaí called to her home and she opened the door slightly and put her foot to it so that her pet Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy would not run out, the judge said.

One of the gardaí claimed to see a curtain moving in an upstairs room but Ms Rozmyslowicz said this was her dog having a look out the window, the judge said.

The judge was satisfied that a female officer "acted with excessive zeal in producing a baton and threatening the plaintiff with handcuffs" in circumstances where Ms Rozmyslowicz was upset.

As a result of the injury to her foot, she had to wear a cast for a month and an air boot for another month.

There was some impingement on her recreational running but there is no doubt she is a lot better than she was in the short-to-medium term after the incident, he said.

Ms Rozmyslowicz told her counsel Garnet Orange SC she refused to allow the gardaí into her house because they did not have a search warrant.

She had told them there was nobody else there but they pushed the door in catching her foot and she fell to the floor.

The female officer, who had noticed the curtain moving, was particularly aggressive "and threatened me with her stick", she said, and to put handcuffs on her after Ms Rozmyslowicz attempted to make her way up the stairs after the other officers.

She asked the gardaí to take her to hospital but she was refused and later a friend took her.

The judge refused an application by Cormac Corrigan SC, for the State, for a stay on the award on the basis the general damages were excessive.