Gardaí asked to hand in any CCTV footage of claimed heart-attack incident

Seamus Duffy (50) stopped by gardaí in Ballybofey during routine traffic patrol

Garda Insp John O’Toole told Letterkenny District Court he did not know whether there was CCTV in a Garda car involved in an incident and asked for the case to be adjourned until May 7th to find out.  File photograph: Frank Miller/The Irish Times
Garda Insp John O’Toole told Letterkenny District Court he did not know whether there was CCTV in a Garda car involved in an incident and asked for the case to be adjourned until May 7th to find out. File photograph: Frank Miller/The Irish Times

Gardaí have been ordered to hand over any in-car CCTV footage from a patrol car involved in an incident in which a man claimed he was having a heart attack after he was stopped.

Co Donegal man Seamus Duffy was stopped by gardaí on April 7th last in Ballybofey during a routine traffic patrol.

Mr Duffy (50), claims he began to experience chest pains during the incident.

Gardaí left the scene and Mr Duffy was transported to hospital in an ambulance.

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He later made an official complaint to the Garda Ombudsman about the behaviour of gardaí involved.

Breach of discipline

The Ombudsman then wrote to Mr Duffy on November 28th last informing him that both gardaí involved had been found to be in breach of discipline.

The investigating officer said both "were found to be in breach of the Garda Síochána (Discipline) Regulations 2007 in relation to neglect of duty and were dealt with by way of Advice".

Mr Duffy has since been charged with using threatening and abusive or insulting behaviour and appeared at Letterkenny District Court on Tuesday to answer the charge.

Charge withdrawn

A further charge relating to obstruction of gardaí against Mr Duffy, of Railway Railway Avenue, Killygordan, was withdrawn.

Solicitor Rory O’Brien said he was making an application for CCTV footage from the Garda car involved in the incident.

He said the case was a highly contentious one which had already been the subject of a Garda Ombudsman investigation.

Garda Insp John O’Toole told Letterkenny District Court he did not know whether there was CCTV in the Garda car and asked for the case to be adjourned until May 7th to find out.