By Declan Brennan
A builder accused of trying to get a woman into his car in the middle of the night by intimidating her and assaulting her partner told gardaí that he was trying “to stop a man bashing a woman”, a court has heard.
Andra Calauz has told the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that on the night of September 18 last year she was walking alone on the Kimmage rd lower in Dublin city when Declan McGowan (33) pulled his car up beside her.
She said she had an argument with her husband over a video call on her mobile phone.
She said that the accused told her he was a garda and told her to get into his car.
She said Mr McGowan got out of his car, told her she was beautiful, kissed her hand, and hugged her.
Her husband Daniel Ion testified that he came down to his wife and the defendant began choking him with one hand, told him he was a garda and that his wife was coming with him.
Her husband told the jury that Mr McGowan said he had a gun in his car. Her husband had contacted gardaí who arrived within minutes.
Garda Aaron Webb told the jury yesterday afternoon that after charging Mr McGowan with assaulting Mr Ion the defendant replied “I did not assault him. I prevented him from causing further harm to his partner and when he calmed down I simply spoke to him”.
In reply to the charge of impersonating a garda the defendant said “I said I was going to call the guards when Daniel Ion threatened to shoot me and I waited for gardai to arrive”.
He said that he never put a hand on the woman in reply to the charge of assault, where he allegedly hugged and kissed her without her consent.
The accused told gardaí that he had stopped to help a woman and she told him she was in danger and he said he would bring her to gardaí.
He said her husband appeared on the scene and ran up to the woman and slapped her in the face.
Mr McGowan said he then stepped in and put his two hands on the man’s shoulders.
He told gardaí “I don’t like men who bash women. I stopped a man bashing a woman”.
He said that he never told anyone he was a garda and said this may have been a misunderstanding because of a “massive language barrier”.
Defending counsel Garnet Orange SC told the jury that the only thing his client did wrong was to make a foolish decision to act “the good Samaritan”.
“He made the critical mistake of placing himself between a husband and wife,” counsel said.
He said the implication of the prosecution was that his client was trying to abduct a woman.
He said this would be “a spectacular risk” for his client as the woman’s husband had already seen Mr McGowan’s face on her video call.
He said his client never laid a finger on the woman and only grabbed her husband to restrain him after he had struck his own wife.
John Moher BL, prosecuting, said that Mr McGowan’s account was fantastical.
He said that when the defendant’s efforts to get the woman into his car were interrupted by her husband’s appearance “he flew into a rage” and assaulted the man.
Mr McGowan of Branswood, Athy, Co Kildare, has pleaded not guilty to attempted coercion of Ms Calauz, assaulting her, impersonating a member of An Garda Síochána and assaulting Mr Ion causing him harm.
Jurors will begin deliberations today after Judge Patricia Ryan’s charges them in the law.