Man jailed for punching garda ‘square in the face’ after urinating in city lane

• 4h ago

A father-of-two who punched a garda “square in the face” after he was stopped urinating in a lane way in Dublin city centre has been jailed for three months.

Eugene Duff (42) went on to kick another garda in the leg and had to be hit with a baton and pepper-sprayed as he resisted arrest.

Duff, an out of work window cleaner of New Street Gardens, Dublin 8, pleaded not guilty to assaulting two gardaí, obstruction and threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour on June 6 last year.

Judge Bryan Smyth found him guilty and sentenced him.

A garda told Dublin District Court he saw the accused urinating at Bachelor’s Way at 6pm. When stopped, Duff “immediately told me to f**k off”.

He remained highly irate and pulled his public services card from the garda’s hand as he took details.

The garda tried to arrest him by placing his hand on his arm.

“He turned around and punched me with a closed fist square in the face,” the garda said.

He was hit without warning over his upper lip and stepped back.

The accused advanced towards the garda who hit him with his baton.

Duff remained highly irate, threatening to assault him and another garda had to pepper spray him as they were unable to handcuff him.

His aggressive behaviour continued in the patrol van.

Cross-examined by the defence, the garda denied that he and his colleague brought Duff to the ground without justification.

Another garda said when they lifted Duff off the ground and walked him to the van, “he kicked me in the upper left thigh”.

Duff told the court he had a coffee on the boardwalk but there were no toilets and he decided to “risk the lane way”.

He was “halfway through my flow” when the garda approached.

He denied using bad language and said the garda pulled out his baton and swung it at him.

He said he was put on the ground on his back “in a puddle of wee” and handcuffed.

His nose was “running like the River Liffey” after he was pepper sprayed and the gardaí “threw me like a bag of coal” into the van, he said.

Denying hitting the gardaí, he said: “He would need new teeth if I hit him with a closed fist.”

The judge said the garda version of events was much more credible.