{"id":461657,"date":"2026-05-22T11:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/461657\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T11:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:41:10","slug":"garda-inspector-was-in-fear-of-his-life-when-longford-man-set-dog-on-him-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/461657\/","title":{"rendered":"Garda inspector was in fear of his life when Longford man set dog on him \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Garda<\/a> inspector thought he was going to die after a Belgian Shepherd dog was set on him during a confrontation in Co Longford<\/a> eight years ago, a court was told<\/p>\n

Tom Quinn made the remarks in a victim impact statement as Edward \u201cBlondie\u201d Stokes (35) and his wife, Sharon Stokes (38), both formerly of Ferriskill, Granard, Co Longford, appeared for sentencing at Longford Circuit Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The incident saw the circulation of video footage online, which Judge Kenneth Connolly noted was \u201cself-serving in the extreme and distorted in the extreme\u201d and resulted in the career and reputation of Quinn being \u201cadversely affected\u201d.<\/p>\n

Quinn said that the incident was \u201cdramatically life-altering\u201d for him \u201cpersonally, professionally and reputationally\u201d, as he was subjected to \u201chorrible and vicious commentary on social media\u201d.<\/p>\n

Edward Stokes was charged with one count of endangerment arising from the incident on December 3rd, 2018, at Ferriskill, Granard, where he set his Belgian Shepherd dog on Quinn, who was then a sergeant in the Granard District.<\/p>\n

Quinn shot the animal in an attempt to free himself from the dog, which had launched at his neck and was pulling out of his tie. <\/p>\n

Stokes entered a guilty plea to the charge in February of this year. The judge sentenced him to three years and three months in prison with the final two years suspended for five years on that charge. The sentence is to be served consecutively to a lengthy sentence he is already serving with an expiration date in mid-2028.<\/p>\n

Sharon Stokes pleaded guilty in February to the charge of producing a slash hook, which she gave to her husband during the incident. She was sentenced to 12 months in prison, which the judge commuted to 150 hours of community service to be completed within 12 months.<\/p>\n

At the sentence hearing this week, Sgt James Rowan outlined that a customer who had agreed to pay \u20ac1,500 to have Edward Stokes replace the engine in his Ford Transit pickup van, had read some articles regarding the recovery of stolen property in the Edgeworthstown and Granard areas.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Man pleads guilty to allowing his German shepherd to attack garda sergeant in Co LongfordOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He was concerned that his vehicle would be repaired using stolen parts and contacted garda\u00ed for assistance. Quinn accompanied him to the property of Edward Stokes, where he had agreed to supervise an inspection of the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Stokes became aggressive, directing his wife to record the exchange before instructing her to \u201cget the slasher\u201d. Sharon Stokes retrieved a slash hook, which Edward Stokes then waved in Quinn\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n

Following a scuffle between the two men and the customer, Edward Stokes was disarmed and the customer attempted to drive his vehicle away from the property. Edward Stokes ran to a caged area to retrieve his Belgian Shepherd dog, which he proceeded to goad towards Insp Quinn, who declared that he was armed.<\/p>\n

The dog was \u201csnarling, bearing his teeth and frothing at the mouth\u201d, Rowan outlined, adding that the animal was \u201cgoing mad and jumping off the ground\u201d and that Quinn felt he was \u201cin grave and mortal danger\u201d. <\/p>\n

Edward Stokes did not back the dog off, forcing Insp Quinn to aim his firearm at the dog\u2019s chest and discharge one round. <\/p>\n

Edward Stokes said: \u201cYou shot me, Tom\u201d, though further investigation revealed the bullet had ricocheted off the ground, after passing through the dog, and hit the accused man in the ankle.<\/p>\n

Edited \u201cself-serving\u201d and \u201cdistorted\u201d video footage, which circulated on social media supported a narrative that Stokes had been shot, and both accused made statements to GSOC of a similar nature, denying any existence of a dog.<\/p>\n

Edward Stokes has 27 previous convictions and Sharon Stokes six, the court heard.<\/p>\n

In his victim impact statement, Quinn outlined how he had been recommended for promotion to rank of inspector and was awaiting his promotion notification and transfer details.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an exciting time in my life and a great honour for myself and my family \u2013 a just reward I felt for my hard work and dedication throughout my career, but particularly my endeavours over the previous years in the Granard district tackling serious and organised crime and criminal organisations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, the incident on December 3rd, 2018, caused a delay in his promotion, which did not happen until August 2019. He then took a case against Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to have his promotion backdated to December, with the High Court ruling in his favour.<\/p>\n

Of the incident itself, he said: \u201cI honestly thought both of us were about to die. Yet with the video running, I was so conscious of the correct use of force.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to discharge my firearm. It was the last thing I wanted to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Judge Connolly commended Quinn for the \u201cmagnanimous\u201d conclusion to his victim impact statement in which he said he did not wish to see Sharon Stokes imprisoned, as she is the sole carer to the couple\u2019s seven children while Edward Stokes is incarcerated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Garda inspector thought he was going to die after a Belgian Shepherd dog was set on him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13553,1346,61,60,3181,43],"class_list":["post-461657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-circuit-court","tag-garda-siochana","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-longford","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461657","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=461657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}