A gardener has told the High Court he thought he was dead when a gun was put to his neck and handguns were pointed at his head by members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit when they mistakenly thought he was part of a robbery gang at a petrol station.
John Paul King said a man knelt on his back with a gun pointed at his neck, while others pointed guns at his head and he was called a “scumbag”.
He said that when detectives realised he was an innocent bystander he was told by an officer he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Mr King (40), of Kingshall, Newcastle Upper, Newcastle, Co Wicklow, has sued the State over the incident outside the On the Run shop and restaurant attached to an Esso station on the Navan Road, Dublin, on August 5th, 2003.
The case before Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne and a jury opened yesterday and continues today.
Mr King claims he was set upon, assaulted and falsely imprisoned by armed men in boiler suits, who subsequently turned out to be gardaí.
