Gavin O\u2019Reilly (42) had been accused of racially abusing a bouncer and aggressively smacking the manager\u2019s phone from her hand\n<\/p>\n
Gavin O\u2019Reilly (42) had been accused of racially abusing a bouncer and aggressively smacking the manager\u2019s phone from her hand as she recorded him.<\/p>\n
A judge today dismissed the assault charge but found the public order offence proven \u201cin limited circumstances,\u201d though he did not accept that the racial abuse or other alleged threats happened. <\/p>\n
Supt O\u2019Reilly, who was off duty and on a night out with friends at the time of the confrontation had denied all the allegations in a non-jury trial at Dublin District Court.<\/p>\n
Judge John Hughes adjourned finalisation of the case to hear submissions on a penalty next month.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Reilly pleaded not guilty to assaulting Emma Parks and engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour outside Pennylane pub, Strand Street Great on August 26, 2023. The prosecution had been brought by the DPP on behalf of the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission, now Fiosr\u00fa.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gda Supt Gavin O’Reilly <\/p>\n
During the three-day trial, Ms Parks had said she asked O\u2019Reilly and his friends to leave the pub to get a \u201cbite to eat\u201d because she believed they had too much to drink, and they went with \u201cno animosity.\u201d<\/p>\n
She alleged O\u2019Reilly came back shortly after and \u201cgot in my face,\u201d with his teeth bared and fists clenched, threatening she was \u201cnever going to work again,\u201d and he would \u201cget the place shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said he told her his name, that he was a garda superintendent and that he knew the owner.<\/p>\n
Doorman Marcos Peter Inacio alleged that when he intervened and put his hand on his shoulder, O\u2019Reilly said \u201cget your hand off me you black bastard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Parks said she did not believe O\u2019Reilly was a garda or a superintendent, but told him this was \u201cdisgusting language.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she took out her phone to record him and had it at her chest when he slapped it out of her hand, swiping downwards and it hit against her finger.<\/p>\n
Mr Inacio and another bouncer brought him to the ground and restrained him.<\/p>\n
![\"Emma](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757621228_181_0fa44e19-8e9a-4b47-81da-328874197be1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Emma Parks. Photo: Tom Tuite<\/p>\n
An arresting garda claimed O’Reilly had threatened to sue him and that he would lose his job.<\/p>\n
In his decision, Judge Hughes said he found that O\u2019Reilly\u2019s arrest was not lawful so he excluded garda evidence of anything that took place after it.<\/p>\n
On the alleged assault, he said the two doormen had accepted in evidence that Ms Parks had provoked O\u2019Reilly and “escalated matters” by putting her phone into his face. \u201cIt\u2019s clear from the CCTV that she stuck her phone into his face, she put her hand on his chest and walked him backward with the phone in his face,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n
The judge believed she was in \u201cno fear whatsoever\u201d when she rang 999 in a \u201cwindow dressing exercise.\u201d Her description to the operator of what was happening, including an \u201caudacious claim\u201d that O’Reilly was lashing out, was \u201cfabricated to make it sound like it was more serious than it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he did not find Ms Parks a credible witness and had significant doubts over her evidence.<\/p>\n
He said the breach of the peace allegations related to the accused\u2019s behaviour from the time he returned to the pub until his arrest, including alleged aggressive and violent behaviour, shouted abuse, threats and foul language.<\/p>\n
He did not accept evidence that O\u2019Reilly used racial insults towards Mr Inacio \u201cor anyone\u201d because of inconsistencies in the witnesses’ evidence.<\/p>\n
CCTV showed O’Reilly was pulled off his feet and did not follow Ms Parks, as she said.<\/p>\n
The second bouncer, Osmar Fontes, had accepted he \u201coverreacted\u201d in putting the accused to the ground.<\/p>\n
However, Judge Hughes said CCTV showed when the accused re-entered the premises he was walking at speed and Ms Parks recoiled on being confronted.<\/p>\n
CCTV showed him standing very close to her and the footage was consistent with evidence that his demeanour was \u201cannoyed\u201d. He also \u201cpointed aggressively with his finger proximate to her\u201d.<\/p>\n
The judge said a breach of the peace could include actions and words \u201cthat are likely to produce violence in others\u201d and \u201cit did, that is evidenced by the actions of Ms Parks.\u201d<\/p>\n
The case had adverse consequences for O\u2019Reilly who was \u201cdeeply upset by what happened\u201d and was \u201csorry he didn\u2019t just walk away,\u201d his barrister Garnet Orange SC said. O’Reilly had 21 years of service with the gardai including the last three as a superintendent.<\/p>\n
He had no prior convictions and Mr Orange asked the judge to strike the public order charge out if he makes a substantial payment to charity. The judge asked what effect it would have on O\u2019Reilly\u2019s career if he applied the Probation Act instead.<\/p>\n
Mr Orange said this would still be a \u201cblack mark\u201d. The judge asked prosecutor John Griffin BL to clarify this on the next date, October 8<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gavin O\u2019Reilly (42) had been accused of racially abusing a bouncer and aggressively smacking the manager\u2019s phone from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-15071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}