A FRIEND of 14-year-old schoolboy Brian Rossiter who was arrested less than 30 minutes before him yesterday told the inquest into Brian's death that he himself was assaulted by gardaí in his cell in Clonmel Garda station.
Daniel Leahy had been with Brian Rossiter and Anthony O'Sullivan earlier that night but was arrested shortly before them on suspicion of having caused criminal damage to a shop window in Clonmel at about 9pm on September 10th, 2002.
Yesterday Mr Leahy, who was 14 at the time, told the inquest that there was a lot that he couldn't remember of the night but he could recall that he was assaulted by gardaí in his cell in Clonmel Garda station after he was brought there following his arrest.
"I got a few slaps in the station off a few guards, I could put a name on one of them . . . I can't remember how many times but I know I was hit a few times in the cell - I think it was by more than one guard," he said.
Mr Leahy said gardaí brought him into an interview room after Brian was found unconscious in his cell on the morning of September 11th and they were trying to coerce him into saying that Brian had taken ecstasy tablets at a party that they had been at the night before. "I remember a guard or guards saying to me that Krusty was after taking Es that night. That made me pretty mad because I was sure Krusty wasn't after taking Es - I'm pretty sure they were trying to coerce me into saying that." Questioned by Stephen Byrne , for the Garda Commissioner, Mr Leahy was adamant about what happened. "They kept telling me 'He took Es' and I said 'No, he didn't' and they said 'Yes, he did' - they were trying to make me say he was after taking Es."
Mr Leahy testified that he had met Brian Rossiter on both September 9th and September 10th and he had two black eyes and he had complained about pains in his head but other than his complaints and his appearance, he appeared normal and his speech was not slurred.
Brian had told him he had got a hiding from Noel Hannigan who had headbutted and kneed him. "His two eyes were out past his forehead, below his eyes was swollen too, black and blue - he looked very bad and said he had a pain in his forehead," he said.
He said he and Brian had been at a party at Wayne O'Driscoll's flat on the evening of September 10th and there had been a row there but he was pretty sure that Brian was not assaulted. He told Mr Doyle for the Rossiter family that Brian never mentioned about having a persistent erection on either day and he felt that he knew Brian well enough for Brian to able to tell him that, albeit in some jocose fashion.
