Garda said 'you may hit your girlfriend but you won't hit me,' wrongful arrest case told

A garda sergeant told a man who had just been pepper-sprayed and arrested "you may hit your girlfriend but you won't hit me", the High Court has heard.

Gerald Jennings (aged 34) is suing the State for wrongful arrest following an incident in Carlow town in which gardaí mistakenly believed he had carried out a vicious street assault on his fiancée Martha Kowalczyk even though he was asleep in her apartment at the time.