Cork garda sues over injuries sustained when rescuing woman in domestic violence incident

Garda Timothy McSweeney had been unable to return to active duty following the ordeal

Garda Timothy McSweeney, who last year received a bravery award from the Commissioner Drew Harris, had received stab wounds to his hand, arm and knee before he managed to pin his assailant on the ground and call for assistance. File picture: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

A Cork garda who saved a woman’s life and received life-changing wounds in the process has sued the Garda Commissioner for compensation.

Garda Timothy McSweeney, who last year received a bravery award from the Commissioner Drew Harris, has lodged papers seeking a Garda compensation personal injuries summons in the High Court.

Such an action can be brought against the Garda Commissioner with authorisation from the Personal Injuries Assessment Board. Gda McSweeney is represented by Cork law firm Cantillons. The firm did not respond to a request for comment.

The incident which left the Passage West-based Garda with life-changing injuries occurred at a house in Douglas in March 2022, when he was called to the scene of a dispute between a man and a woman. When he arrived at the scene, the woman was in the process of trying to escape the house with her children to get away from Anthony O’Donnell.

O'Donnell, who was intoxicated at the time, attacked Gda McSweeney with a large knife, with the garda then telling the woman and children to run. A five-minute struggle ensued in which the garda received stab wounds to his hand, arm and knee before he managed to pin his assailant on the ground and call for assistance.

“It was fear of him getting the knife off me and what he could do to the woman and children, so that drove me to carry on and every muscle in my body to get him down on the ground and get the knife off him,” Gda McSweeney told the Irish Examiner last September following a ceremony in which he received a silver Scott medal for bravery from the Commissioner.

Garda Timothy McSweeney (pictured), who last year received a bravery award from the Commissioner Drew Harris, has lodged papers seeking a Garda compensation personal injuries summons in the High Court. File picture: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

The garda had been unable to return to active duty following the ordeal.

O’Donnell, now aged 38, was sentenced to four years in prison at Cork Circuit Criminal Court for attacking and injuring Gda McSweeney at the house on the evening in question.

The woman who was present in the house that night told the court: “I want to thank Garda Tim McSweeney. I believe he saved my life.”

Passing judgement at the time, Judge Catherine Staines said that Gda McSweeney’s victim impact statement, in which he said what had happened had shaken him “to the core”, was “quite harrowing”.