If you are a regular reader you know the drill by now – The Donegal News arrives in the house and  I get bits read out to me and eventually I go ‘WHAT?!’

This weeks ‘gem’  in the court reports is on page 30 of last Friday’s edition.

Footage of street row ‘disappeared ‘ from phone.

A District judge dismissed the public order charges against a Letterkenny resident upon hearing that video evidence filmed by the defendant had disappeared from his movile phone while in garda custody.

Edidjus Morkuna (27) …who represented himself was charged with threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour in a public place, failing to comply with a direction given by a member of the Garda Siochana and wilful obstruction.

The defendant was arrested after coming across Gardai arresting other members sof the Lithuanian community in Letterkenny last month.

‘There is a small community of Lithuanians here in the town and we know each other well., so when we saw some of friends on Main Street after leaving Sister Sara’s, we went over to say hello.

I then saw that one of our Lithuanian friends was being arrested so I decided to film the arrest with my mobile phone just in case it would be needed as evidence.

I was told to ‘get the f*** out of here with your mobile phone’, they then grabbed and handcuffed me and put me into the Garda van.

As I was sitting in the van, I heard someone walking past and I asked if they could loosen the handcuffs as they were really hurting me. I was told to ‘f*** off’ and ‘shut up’.

‘The Gardai then took me to the station where I told them that I had chest pain and my wrists were sore and I asked them for a doctor.

I also asked them where my phone was, it was not mentioned in the custody record. When I was released they told me ‘You can go and see a doctor now’ and as I went outside a Garda came out of the darkness and gave me back my mobile phone.

The footage I had filmed was no longer on it. It I was guilty  of the offences I am charged with the footage would have shown it.’ said Morkunas.

Garda O’ Mahony told the court he ‘believed’ the defendant was filming, upon being questioned by the judge who said ‘You took an oath to tell the whole truth, why did you not mention this before?’.

The Garda then replied that he ‘was not aware’ if Morkunas had been filming or not and that it wasn’t the offence that he had been arrested for.

Judge Kilrane again asked Garda O’Mahony why he had not told him that the defendant had been filming the his evidence. The Garda said he had ‘no reason’. Dismissing the case, Judge Kilrane said he expects ‘the whole truth’ and not parts to be ‘left out’.

Is this stuff happening everywhere in the country regularly? Am I wrong to be surprised reading it?

The story below this on page 30 was about someone who ‘Tried to frustrate Garda procedure by wetting himself’.  I’ll leave that one alone.