Suspended sentence for garda who assaulted wife

By Niamh O’Donoghue

A Dublin-based garda who carried out a “protracted assault” on his then wife, also a member of the force, has walked free from court on a suspended sentence.

Trevor Bolger (48), who was previously attached to Ballymun Garda Station, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting Margaret Loftus on October 25, 2012.

Judge Martina Baxter gave him a three-month sentence, which she suspended in full on strict conditions.

The court heard the maximum penalty for the assault, under Section 2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act which is normally dealt with summarily in the District Court, is six months imprisonment or a fine.

Detective Garda Rioghnach O’Sullivan previously told the court that in October 2012, the then couple had travelled to her home county in Balla, Co. Mayo for a family event.

Bolger was irate because Ms Loftus spoke to her family and did not stay by his side and he sat at the bar drinking for the night, the court was told.

When they returned home to her childhood bedroom in which they were staying, he hit her in the back and grabbed her by the hair while she begged him not to hurt her.

She described it as a “protracted assault” which was “terrifying” and she feared that if she had stayed with him she would have been killed so ended the marriage the next day.

Det Gda O’Sullivan told the court that the following afternoon “she had her father stand beside her while she told him [Bolger] that their marriage was over”.