Corkman gives garda the middle finger at sentencing after apologising for assaulting him

Simon Quilligan had punched the garda three times during arrest

Garda O’Brien said: “Since the assault on me by Simon Quilligan I have attended my general practitioner on various occasions complaining of severe headaches/migraine."

A 31-year-old Cork man apologised during a sentencing hearing to the garda he assaulted but as he was taken away to start a four-year sentence he gave the injured officer a middle-finger gesture.

Simon Quilligan apologised to Garda Ken O’Brien when he was being sentenced at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. It was made through his defence barrister, Donal O’Sullivan, who said of Quilligan: “He knows the guard, he is sorry, he apologises.”