Serving garda convicted of assault and attempting to pervert course of justice

A serving member of An Garda Síochána has been ordered to do 80 hours of community service after a judge convicted him of assaulting a prisoner in custody and attempting to pervert the course of justice by instructing a subordinate to falsify a custody record.

Sgt William Doyle (52) of Waterford Garda station had denied both charges when he first appeared at Waterford District Court earlier this year.

On Friday, Judge John O’Leary delivered his reserved decision in the case and found Doyle guilty of both counts.

Judge O’Leary said the second charge, where he found him guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice by instructing probation Gda Rachel Pratt, was the more serious of the two offences and merited a custodial sentence.

“The public need to know that the same law will be applied to uniformed gardaí as to any member of the public … the public need to have confidence that a custody record is accurate and correct,” said Judge O’Leary, adding he believed the offence merited a sentence of four months.

However, given Doyle’s exemplary record of 30 years of service in the Garda, including his work as a family liaison officer, he said he would impose a community service order of 80 hours in lieu of prison time and he took the assault charge into account.

During the three-day trial, Garda Pratt testified she was the member in charge in the station on March 9th, 2022, when a prisoner became very aggressive after he was brought into the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) room.

Garda Pratt she had been in the public office when she heard “commotion and shouting” coming from the room and when she went to investigate, she saw two gardaí in the corridor outside.

She said that when she opened the door to the room, she saw Doyle standing over the suspect who was sitting in a chair. “Sgt Doyle had him pinned against the window – he was using his forearm pressed between his neck and chest area,” she said.

Doyle strongly rejected the suggestion he had put his forearm on the man’s neck, explaining he was in his office across the room from the room when he saw the prisoner was becoming aggressive, so he went over to try and calm him down.

Det Garda Darren Colfer and Garda Sean Lane, who were with the prisoner, testified at the earlier hearing that the man was highly aggressive and abusive and when the accused entered the room, he became abusive towards him.

Garda Lane said that after a minute or so, Doyle said to them: “Give me two seconds there, lads”, which they interpreted as him wanting them to leave the room and, as he was their superior officer, they both exited the room into the corridor.

Garda Lane said the door was left “slightly open” and they heard “a commotion” in the room involving some pushing, “hitting off the chair, hitting off the printer, wardrobe – you could hear something was happening in there”.

However, Doyle said when he asked the two officers to give him some time, he was simply asking them to move aside to let him pass them and that he was not asking them to leave him alone in the room with the suspect.

He told his barrister, David Staunton BL, the prisoner was continuing to be aggressive despite asking him to be quiet, so he put his forearm across the man’s chest to force him back into the chair after the man reached up and pulled off his tie, which fell to the floor.

He also denied punching the man in the chest in the custody area. He said what Garda Pratt saw him doing was putting his open palm on the man’s sternum and pushing back in line with Garda training to put a safe space between them as he feared the man was about to assault him.

He also denied he also instructed Garda Pratt not to “mention what happened in the AFIS room” when she went into his office to ask him what she should fill into the custody register at 11.05am.

Garda Pratt had told Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission investigators she “didn’t feel right doing it but I did it”.

Doyle said that she was incorrect. “I said: ‘Rachel you have to put it in the custody record – I had to defend myself,’ she asked me what she should write in the register, and I said: ‘I can’t put words in your mouth, but the matter needs to be recorded.”

However, Judge O’Leary said he found Garda Pratt to be a credible witness.

The defence barrister, Mr Staunton pointed out his client had not gone out of his way to look for Garda Pratt and get her to alter the custody record but rather it was a case of her approaching him and asking what she should do.

Mr Staunton also pointed out although his client accepted the verdict of the court, it had terminal career consequences for him as the conviction would lead to his dismissal from the force and was thus ending over 30 years of exemplary service.

Judge O’Leary accepted that Doyle’s offending was not premeditated but rather a spur-of-the-moment matter. He acknowledged the conviction would have career-ending implications for Doyle and described it as “a very sad situation” for the accused.