The High Court awarded a married couple €50,000 in compensatory damages after finding that Gardaí entered their home without consent and without lawful authority while seeking to arrest their adult son.
In a judgment delivered on 9 July 2013, Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley found that Sergeant Gearoid Keating did not have reasonable cause to suspect the son of dangerous driving causing death. She also concluded that the intended arrest was aimed at finding out what he might say, which was not a proper basis for arrest.
The court heard that the son had been driving when a pedestrian died in a collision on Templeogue Road in March 2004. A Garda collision report estimated the car’s speed at between 25 and 31mph and concluded there had been sufficient time and distance for the driver to react. Garda officers disagreed about whether the available evidence supported a dangerous-driving suspicion. The son was later charged with careless driving and acquitted.
The couple’s claim concerned a visit to their Templeogue home on 11 August 2004. The three Garda defendants admitted entering without the occupiers’ consent. They said they were entitled to enter to arrest the son, who ordinarily lived there, and to check whether he was inside. The couple said they told the officers he was in New Zealand. The judge found that voices may have been raised at the door, but rejected the claim that there had been several minutes of shouting. She accepted that the bedrooms were looked into.
The court held that the statutory power to enter a dwelling for an arrest required reasonable cause to suspect an arrestable offence. It found that the collision evidence could support suspicion of inattention or carelessness, but did not objectively support suspicion of dangerous driving. The judge also noted that officers were frustrated by the son’s decision not to provide a voluntary statement, and found that the intended arrest was for the purpose of questioning him.
The couple sought aggravated or exemplary damages as well as compensation. The court declined to award either, finding no particular conduct at the house that warranted condemnation. It awarded €50,000 for the trespass and the distress and anxiety caused by the unlawful entry.