The late Dean Barry
By Andrew Carey
THE brother of convicted rapist Dean Barry has claimed that Limerick gardaí harassed and taunted him about his brother’s suicide when they arrested him on last March.
However, Judge Eugene O’Kelly said he was “shocked” and appalled at to hear such allegations levelled at gardai.
Mark Barry (23) of Garryglass Avenue Ballinacurra Weston, denied a breach of the public order act at Limerick District court last week.
Prosecuting Garda Dean Landers of Roxboro Garda Station said that when he stopped a Garda patrol van on Byrne Avenue shortly before 7pm on March 17, Mark Barry ran from the area. When gardaí caught up with him, he resisted arrest and used threatening and abusive language.
Defending solicitor John Devane put it to the prosecuting garda that Mr Barry did not flee the scene and only became irritated during the arrest when references were made about his dead brother.
When Mr Devane put it to Garda Landers that he made the shape of a ligature to Mark Barry and said he should “hang himself like his brother did”, Garda Landers said he took “great insult to that allegation” and denied he ever made such a gesture.
Inspector Dermot O’Connor said that the allegations put to Garda Landers were “outrageous”.
Having pleaded not guilty to the public order charge, Mark Barry said he had a perfect memory of the incident.
“I got pulled by the paddywagon and the guards jumped out and whacked me with batons. They cracked me on the wrist and said ‘would you go away and hang yourself like your brother did’.
“I had a graze on my head too and he stuck his hands down the back of my pants and sexually harassed me”.
Hedenied running away from gardai as he said he was on a “push bike, up visiting cousins”.
Stating he was satisfied with the evidence of Garda Landers, Judge O’Kelly said it was shocking to hear such allegations but he had no doubt as to the Garda’s credibility.
He had to question the veracity of Mark Barry’s evidence which he described as appalling.
Mark Barry was convicted of the charge contrary to section 6 of the Criminal Justice Public Order Act and was sentenced to three months in prison.
A plea for leniency or a deferral of the sentence for one week was refused. Recognizance in the event of an appeal was set at €500 with an independent surety of €900.
Mark Barry, who has 107 previous convictions, has been in and out of jail since he was 14 years old the court was told.
His brother, Dean Barry was found by prison officers hanging in his cell in January of this year. He was one of four teens convicted of a brutal gang rape at Cratloe Woods in 2004. He was on remand at the time of his death for an alleged arson attack.
The Barry brothers shared a cell along with another inmate at the time of Dean Barry’s death.
