Former garda sentenced to three years, with two suspended, for assaults on teenager

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Lorcan Murphy, 32, was sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after a jury found him guilty of two counts of assault causing harm to a teenager in July 2025. Judge Pauline Codd imposed a three-year prison sentence, with the final two years suspended for two years on strict conditions.

The assaults took place on Essex Street and at Pearse Street Garda Station on 1 June 2021, when the teenager was 17. The court heard Murphy used force that caused the teenager to hit his head and suffer a fractured skull and brain bleed. Judge Codd said the force was unnecessary and disproportionate; the teenager recovered.

The judge said Murphy had acted recklessly rather than intentionally. She accepted that he was remorseful and had submitted character references, but said the sentence needed to mark the seriousness of a garda using disproportionate force against a citizen.