{"id":282829,"date":"2026-02-05T21:57:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/282829\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T21:57:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:57:06","slug":"jury-asked-to-decide-if-sergeant-used-reasonable-force-after-baton-strike-on-ex-garda-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/282829\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury asked to decide if sergeant used \u2018reasonable force\u2019 after baton strike on ex-garda \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A jury in the retrial of a case taken by a former garda<\/a> who alleges he was wrongfully struck by a 2m now-Garda superintendent with a baton after a high speed pursuit has been asked to decide whether \u201creasonable force\u201d was used in the execution of his arrest.<\/p>\n

The High Court<\/a> case was brought by ex-garda John Bowe (41), who was arrested following the chase, which occurred outside Bunclody, Co Wexford<\/a>, on December 5th, 2014. Bowe, of Coolnaleen, Camolin, Enniscorthy, was subsequently convicted of dangerous driving arising from the chase.<\/p>\n

Bowe brought the action over alleged injuries sustained when Det Supt Rory Sheriff, then a sergeant at Enniscorthy Garda station, struck Bowe over the head with a retractable baton following the chase.<\/p>\n

Sheriff does not deny that he struck Bowe but submits his actions were \u201cproportionate and justified\u201d following what he described as the most \u201cextreme and dangerous\u201d driving he ever witnessed.<\/p>\n

In November, after seven days of the first civil trial, the jury foreperson said there was no progress being made towards a conclusion in the case. Judge Michael O\u2019Higgins thanked them for their service and excused them from jury service for five years.<\/p>\n

Sheriff has told the court he was chasing Bowe through a field on foot after a 25-minute car chase that hit speeds in excess of 140km\/h.<\/p>\n

Sheriff submits that Bowe, when in the field, turned back on him with a \u201cmetallic object\u201d in his hand and lunged at him. <\/p>\n

Sheriff then deployed his baton and hit Bowe over the head \u201cwith full force, as hard as I could hit him\u201d.<\/p>\n

The metallic object Bowe had in his hand turned out to be a set of keys with two bottle openers attached.<\/p>\n

It is Bowe\u2019s case that Sheriff wrongfully and violently struck him. Bowe claims that arising from alleged injuries sustained, he was diagnosed with functional neurological disorder. The claims are denied.<\/p>\n

Bowe\u2019s case was taken against Sheriff, the Garda Commissioner, the Attorney General and Ireland.<\/p>\n

In his closing speech on Thursday, Mark Harty, counsel for Bowe, told the jury that Bowe was being branded a \u201cliar\u201d by the defence and someone who should be \u201cso ashamed\u201d by his driving on the night that he should not have brought his case to court.<\/p>\n

Harty said there was an element of \u201cgaslighting\u201d to the case where the defence claimed that Bowe was \u201cportraying\u201d himself as a victim regarding his evidence and symptoms after the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is the victim, and you [the jury] were told he was making up symptoms. It\u2019s extraordinary. You are better than that and this country is better than that,\u201d said Harty.<\/p>\n

Richard Lyons, counsel for Sheriff, said it was \u201cmiraculous\u201d and \u201cby the grace of god\u201d nobody had been killed by Bowe who drove on the wrong side of the road and through stop signs at speed attracting the Armed Support Unit and a Garda air support in pursuit.<\/p>\n

Lyons said that Bowe\u2019s claim that when he was struck with the baton he was surrendering in the field was \u201cnonsensical\u201d as Bowe had exited his car and ran 90m into the field away from Sheriff.<\/p>\n

Both barristers told the jury that the question they had to answer was if Sheriff had used \u201creasonable\u201d force in effecting the arrest of Bowe.<\/p>\n

If the answer to this question was \u201cno\u201d then the jury had to consider the award of damages and then a further question of awarding special damages for loss of earnings to Bowe.<\/p>\n

The judge said he would deliver his charge to the jury tomorrow after which they will begin deliberations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A jury in the retrial of a case taken by a former garda who alleges he was wrongfully…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[45,73,61,60,82,9270],"class_list":["post-282829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wexford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282829","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=282829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}