Jailed for 3 years for robbing off-duty garda who was left unconscious

By Natasha Reid

A young man has been jailed for three years for robbing an off-duty garda who was out socialising, leaving him unconscious on the ground.

Evan Ward (22) of Kempton Rise, Navan Road, Dublin 7, was with a juvenile accomplice when he punched the garda several times in the head before stealing his official garda badge and a number of other items.

Ward’s mother had been trying to get help for his behaviour problems since he was two years old, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.

Ward pleaded guilty to robbing the garda as he walked in the Camden Road area of Dublin on January 22, 2024.

Garda Shane Monaghan told the court earlier this year that the garda’s recollection of what occurred was limited when he reported it to Store Street Garda Station 30 minutes later.

He had blood coming from his face and said that he had been robbed in the early hours.

CCTV footage played at that sentence hearing showed him walking at 2.30am, when two males appeared and began attacking and punching him.

He was then seen lying on the ground unconscious, and the two attackers left.

However they returned and the co-accused kicked him in the head while he lay unconscious.

This juvenile co-accused was given a deferred 22 month detention sentence earlier this year.

Garda Monaghan previously told Ward’s sentence hearing that his actions included 11 or 12 punches to the garda’s head, but that his co-accused had delivered the kicks in his presence.

They attacked him right beneath the CCTV camera, and blood was seen flowing from his face onto the ground. He was seen lying alone in the street for a few minutes before getting up.

The court heard both attackers rifled through his pockets while he was on the ground.

A number of items were taken, including two Irish passports, bank cards, a personal Apple phone and a work Samsung phone, along with his car keys and his official garda identification, which gardai carry at all times.

While his car was taken, gardai could not be sure if it was done with the keys, and there was no charge in relation to an unauthorised taking.

The garda’s badge was recovered nine months later.

The injured party was treated at the emergency department of St James’s Hospital later that morning.

Ward was identified from the CCTV footage, was arrested, admitted the attack and apologised a number of times. He said he was under the influence of cocaine at the time.

The court heard he had 57 previous convictions, including two for assault causing harm and one for possession of knives, and has been in custody while awaiting sentencing for this crime.

Gda Monaghan agreed with Ward’s barrister, Seamus Clarke SC, that Ward told him he was “all over the place those four days, living out of a bag of clothes. Out of my head I was.”

He had said that he knew only the first name of the person he was with that night, someone he had met on the streets.

Counsel noted that the injured garda had returned to work, “probably far too early”, after one week.

“What could have been very traumatic consequences medically didn’t happen,” he said. “But it was pure luck.”

Gda Monaghan agreed that Ward was from a good family, and that his father had a business importing fruit and vegetables.

They’ve had assistance from psychiatrists from when he was young, Counsel said, outlining his childhood diagnoses of ADHD, ODD, Tic disorder and another development disorder, which is now considered a subset of autism.

He was under psychological care for his issues and received support in school.

Counsel said that his client attended secondary school but was expelled and then went to Youth Reach for a year.

Mr Clarke said that Ward’s grandmother died a few weeks before this incident.

“On the Thursday before this, his parents left the house because he was having a psychotic episode and was on the roof,” he explained.

He handed up a number of testimonials, including a letter from his mother, which stated that by the time her son was two and a half, she had worked out that he had behavioural problems.

He later received diagnoses, but his mental and behavioural difficulties were exacerbated by a trauma he suffered at 12 years of age.

“He comes from a loving home,” she wrote. “We are constantly trying to help Evan.”

Counsel said he felt the most inhumane part was the “gratuitous” kick the co-accused had delivered when they returned to the scene while the victim was incapacitated on the ground.

“He didn’t say ‘hang on a minute’. He was part of it,” replied the judge.

Taking into account a recent diagnosis of schizophrenic spectrum disorder, the judge handed down a four year sentence and suspended the final year on a number of conditions, including that Ward remain under psychiatric care.