Jail for sex offender who assaulted garda while baby was being removed from his care
A convicted sex offender who assaulted a garda who was helping social workers remove his baby from his care has been jailed for two years and four months.
The victim in the case, Garda Barry Purcell, said that in his 12 years in the gardaí, he never experienced such an assault or aggression as he had in this incident.
The 33-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his child, was convicted by a jury of assault causing harm to Gda Purcell in Dublin on June 16, 2016, following a trial last October in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The court heard the man, who has 23 previous convictions, does not accept the verdict of the jury. He has a district court conviction for sexual assault for which he received a five-month sentence.
Assisting social workers to get nappies and baby clothes
Sentencing the man today, Judge Karen O'Connor said there were a number of aggravating factors in the case, including the psychological damage caused to Gda Purcell.
“It should be noted this arose when Garda Purcell was assisting social workers to get nappies and clothing for the baby,” the judge said.
She said the man does not accept his guilt and “appears to have a pattern of disregard for the rules”.
Judge O'Connor set a sentence of two years and four months and backdated it to account for five months the man previously spent in custody on the matter.
As he was led away by prison guards, the man told the judge repeatedly: “The garda assaulted me.”
The court heard Gda Purcell suffered swelling and bruising to his hand and forearm, causing difficulty using his hand as normal. He said the injuries cleared up but the incident impacted how he dealt with future incidents.
In his victim impact statement previously handed in to court, he said that for a long time, he had been hesitant and fearful in certain situations. He said he was very conscious of his surroundings and who he was dealing with.
Gda Purcell said he was also affected by the man trying to “blacken” his reputation during the trial by saying he was a racist.
The court heard that the accused man, who is originally from the Congo, claimed during the trial that the trigger for the violence had been Gda Purcell engaging in racial abuse towards him and calling him a “monkey”.
The garda said he took that very seriously as he took pride in the way he dealt professionally with the public.
'Heated' interaction with social workers
Sergeant David O'Leary told Garrett Baker BL, prosecuting, that social workers attended at the man's home in Dublin to visit his child. The interaction became heated and social workers left, feeling the need to call gardaí.
Gda Purcell came to the house and an agreement was reached to hand the child over to a relative.
The social workers were packing some belongings for the child while the man was on the phone. After the phone call ended, he began acting in an aggressive manner.
He threw a number of glasses at Gda Purcell, one glass hitting his head, and punched him a number of times to the head and body. Gda Purcell deployed his pepper spray and the man was arrested.
Sgt O'Leary agreed with Garrett McCormack BL, defending, that the man's previous district court conviction for sexual assault had been “at the lower end” of sexual assault.
Mr McCormack said his client was maintaining his position and does not accept the verdict of the jury.
He asked Judge O'Connor to take into account the context of the “tense situation” where, without attributing blame, a child was being taken from his parent.
Counsel also asked the court to take into account the fact the man had no history of violence.
