{"id":324420,"date":"2026-02-07T02:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T02:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/324420\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T02:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T02:15:08","slug":"superintendent-used-reasonable-force-when-striking-fleeing-ex-garda-with-baton-after-chase-jury-finds-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/324420\/","title":{"rendered":"Superintendent used reasonable force when striking fleeing ex-garda with baton after chase, jury finds \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A jury has found that a detective superintendent used reasonable force when executing the arrest of a former garda<\/a> whom he struck over the head with his baton after an \u201cextreme\u201d high-speed car chase in rural Wexford<\/a> in 2014.<\/p>\n

It was the second civil trial of Det Supt Rory Sheriff in four months after a jury failed to reach a conclusion last November.<\/p>\n

Just after 6.30pm on Friday at the High Court<\/a>, the jury found that 6\u20328\u2033 Sheriff used reasonable force in executing the arrest of ex-garda John Bowe (41) in apprehending him in a field outside of Bunclody, Co Wexford.<\/p>\n

The civil trial jury of six women and five men told the court through the foreperson that they had agreed a majority verdict after 4\u00bd hours of deliberation of the eight-day case.<\/p>\n

The High Court case was brought by Bowe, who was arrested following the chase outside Bunclody, on December 5th, 2014. Bowe, of Coolnaleen, Camolin, Enniscorthy<\/a>, was subsequently convicted of dangerous driving.<\/p>\n

Bowe brought the action submitting he sustained his alleged injuries after Sheriff, then a sergeant at Enniscorthy Garda station, struck Bowe over the head with a retractable baton following the 20-minute car chase through rural parts of Co Wexford.<\/p>\n

It was Bowe\u2019s case that Sheriff wrongfully and violently struck him. Bowe claimed that arising from alleged injuries sustained, he was diagnosed with \u2018functional neurological disorder\u2019. The claim was denied.<\/p>\n

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

Sheriff told the court he was chasing Mr Bowe through a field on foot after the 20-minute chase that hit speeds in excess of 140kp\/h.<\/p>\n

The detective said that Bowe, when in the field, turned back on him with a \u201cmetallic object\u201d in his hand and lunged at him. The detective 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

Sheriff submitted he was aiming for Bowe\u2019s torso, feared for his own safety and said he had been informed by attending garda Mick Dee that Bowe had a knife.<\/p>\n

Upon arrest, Sheriff said, Bowe was apologetic and informed him that he was a former garda himself and had been out for \u201cfour pints\u201d for his 30th birthday on the night but also had no tax on his car when he turned away from a garda checkpoint, prompting the pursuit.<\/p>\n

Mr Bowe\u2019s case was taken against Sheriff, the Garda Commissioner, the Attorney General and Ireland.<\/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, mandating the involvement of the Armed Support Unit and the Garda air support unit.<\/p>\n

Lyons said Bowe\u2019s claim that he was surrendering when he was struck with the baton was \u201cnonsensical\u201d as Bowe had exited his car and run 100 yards into the field away from the pursuing Sheriff.<\/p>\n

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

When confirming the verdict, Judge M\u00edche\u00e1l P O\u2019Higgins awarded costs to Sheriff\u2019s legal team for both trials but put a stay on the award pending any appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A jury has found that a detective superintendent used reasonable force when executing the arrest of a former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,9,10,18,151169,13,14,8030,6,10476,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,2451],"class_list":["post-324420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-enniscorthy","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-garda-siochana","tag-headlines","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-wexford"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116026941321050327","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}