Garda sergeant who was found guilty of station assault of prisoner avoids jail

A garda sergeant found guilty of assault and attempting to pervert the course of justice was ordered yesterday to complete 80 hours of community service in lieu of four months in prison.

Sgt William Doyle, based at Waterford Garda Station, who has served for 28 years, was convicted of both charges when he came before Judge John O’Leary having pleaded not guilty at a previous sitting of the court.

The case was taken by the Director of Public Prosecutions on foot of an investigation by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC).

Waterford District Court, having heard evidence at two previous sittings, was told of a ‘commotion’ in a room at Waterford Garda Station on March 9, 2022, and that a slap was heard, while a prisoner accused of assault was being detained.

Sgt Doyle was charged with Section 2 assault against a man in custody under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Persons Act. He also faced a further charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice by requesting no record be taken.

There was also evidence that Sgt Doyle was seen standing over the prisoner with his hand on their shoulders when other gardaí returned to the room in question. At this stage, the prisoner said he had been assaulted by the sergeant.

In giving his verdict, Judge O’Leary said Doyle had led his junior colleague, who was then on probation, into a trap of falsifying the record and that the public needed to have confidence in record-keeping for prisoners.

The judge said he rejected Doyle’s stance and that he had led Garda Rachel Pratt into a trap of falsifying the record, which she did, only to change the entry later. This, said Judge O’Leary, amounted to ‘concealing or failing to report’ the incident concerning the prisoner in the fingerprinting room at the station.

Judge O’Leary praised Garda Pratt for reversing the incorrect record entry later and also giving ‘very honest evidence’ during the case. He added that Doyle had power over Garda Pratt, who behaved as any supervisee would in the situation.

Judge O’Leary added: ‘On what he called the more serious charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice, the sergeant, in asking Garda Pratt to falsify the custody record, confirms Doyle’s guilt of the Section 2 assault.’

The judge said that there is ‘no other plausible or reasonably plausible conclusion’.

On the assault charge, the judge said he was fully satisfied that the accused stood above the prisoner when he was sitting down and vulnerable and assaulted him in a way that went way beyond any reasonable force.

He also accepted that the prisoner had subjected Sgt Doyle to ‘torrents of abuse prior to the assault’.

Judge O’Leary accepted mitigation from defence counsel David Staunton, in that Doyle was a long-serving member of An Garda Síochána, of good standing and would likely immediately lose his job as a result of the conviction.

Judge O’Leary, however, said he would pay no attention whatsoever to photographs submitted to demonstrate injuries allegedly incurred during the assault.

‘Some of them or all of the injuries may have occurred prior to his arrest earlier that morning or even during the arrest by a separate garda,’ he said.

However, Judge O’Leary found him guilty on both charges and said that he should complete 80 hours of community service, in lieu of a prison term of four months, in relation to the charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice, which he said was the more serious count.

He took the assault charge into consideration for sentencing purposes. The judge indicated that recognisance in the event of an appeal would be €500 in the defendant’s own bond.

At an earlier sitting of the court, Doyle strongly rejected an allegation that he had assaulted a prisoner in his 20s in Waterford Garda Station on March 9, 2022, after the man had been arrested on suspicion of committing an assault at about 6am that day that left another man in hospital.