A garda had to draw his baton to disarm a former Russian army tank commander after he attacked a close friend during an alcohol-fuelled row over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Garda Paul O’Driscoll told how gardaí were on patrol at about 2.30am on July 1st, 2024, in Dunmanway, Co Cork, when they were called to a house at Longbridge in the town, where they met a woman, Iveta Peterson, who told them her partner, Pavel Luta, had gone crazy in a shed out the back.
Garda O’Driscoll said himself and his colleague entered the shed where they found Luta, a 68-year-old Latvian, armed with a five-inch fishing knife, shouting and roaring as he stood over another man, Zigrids Doniks, who was lying topless, unconscious and covered in blood on the floor.
Garda O’Driscoll said Luta started shouting and roaring at him and Garda Joe Grimes, and continued to do so as he was repeatedly told to drop the knife, so when he refused to do so he (Garda O’Driscoll) pepper sprayed Luta in the face.
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Luta was temporarily blinded by the spray, but continued to refuse to drop the knife and was waving it about. Garda O’Driscoll said he believed Luta continued to pose a threat with the weapon, so he drew his baton and struck Luta on the hand, causing him to drop the knife.
Garda O’Driscoll said Luta resisted arrest and continued shouting and roaring at them, but they manage to restrain and arrest him. They conveyed him to Bandon Garda station, where he was later questioned about the assault when he sobered up.
Ms Peterson had filmed the row on her phone, and it was clear that Luta had not stabbed Mr Doniks with the knife but had hit him repeatedly around the head and body in a frenzied attack. At interview he admitted to assaulting his friend, who was taken to Cork University Hospital.
Mr Doniks had been knocked unconscious in the assault, but he regained consciousness at CUH, where he spent some time recuperating. He had not made any statement of complaint against his friend, nor was there any medical report on the injured party.
Luta pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to three offences – assault causing harm to Mr Doniks, obstructing Garda O’Driscoll in the execution of his duty, and producing a knife capable of inflicting injury in the course of a dispute, all at Longbridge, Dunmanway, on July 1st, 2024.
Garda O’Driscoll agreed with defence counsel Elaine Audley BL that Luta had assisted gardaí with his guilty plea, particularly given that they had no statement of complaint from Mr Doniks. Garda O’Driscoll also confirmed to her that her client had no previous convictions.
Pleading for leniency, Ms Audley said her client was now retired, having lived in Ireland for 20 years, and she revealed the row with his friend Mr Doniks had broken out after they had both been drinking gin, which was 47 per cent alcohol, which Luta was not used to, being a beer drinker.
She said Luta had served as a tank commander in the Russian army before he came to Ireland and that he and Mr Doniks had had a row over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but that he accepted he was entirely in the wrong and was highly remorseful for assaulting his friend.
Judge Dermot Sheehan said Luta’s early plea of guilty was particularly useful in light of the fact that the prosecution had no statement from the injured party, while he also noted that Luta had accepted full responsibility and was deeply remorseful for the attack.
He said he believed the assault merited a headline sentence of three years, but he would reduce this to a term of 18 months and would suspend the jail term in its entirety in recognition of Luta’s previous good behaviour and the fact he had no previous convictions.
