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A 22-YEAR-OLD CO Cavan student, who claimed he was “humiliated and degraded” when security men broke into a toilet cubicle he was using in Heuston Train Station, Dublin, has won damages in the Circuit Civil Court.
Daniel Masterson told Judge Jacqueline Linnane his trousers were around his ankles and his genitals were exposed as he tried to protect his privacy after security guards pushed in the door and accused him of smoking and drug taking.
Barrister Tom Horan, who appeared with solicitors D’Arcy Horan for Masterson, told the court the then 19-year-old had been defamed and had his privacy breached in the incident on 24 April, 2013.
Masterson, of Latsey, Canningstown, Cootehill, and a student at Cavan Technical Institute, said he had been at the train station to see off his brother Shane, and had gone to the rest room to use the toilet.
As he was sitting on the toilet bowl the door, which he had locked, had been pushed in on him and up to five security men accused him of smoking and taking heroin, which he said he has never done in his life. They ushered him out of the station.
“I wasn’t given a chance to make myself decent. My trousers and underpants were down and my genitals were on show,” he told Horan.
‘Abused and violated’
He said one of the security team shouted: ‘Fucking drugs, fucking drugs’ after they had burst open the door. Masterson denied he had been smoking and said he had never taken drugs in his life. He said he felt abused and violated.
Defendants STT Risk Management and STT Corporate Security Limited called security guard Igoris Kozlovas to give evidence. He told the court he and a colleague had opened the toilet door when they had seen smoke rising from the cubicle.
“The man inside was in his 40s or 50s,” Kozlovas said. “I have never seen the man before the court in my life before. It wasn’t him. It wasn’t him.”
Judge Linnane, who heard there had been several hours difference between the time Masterson said he had been defamed and the incident involving Kozlovas, said the defence case – that Masterson’s claim was a fabrication – had “evaporated” in the witness box when Kozlovas was called.
She awarded Masterson €10,500 in damages and his legal costs.
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If I’m reading that right, he was well within his rights to pursue that in court and deserved the compensation he got
Must have been some toilet visit concidering it aged him bout 30 year years in the process
I was wondering how the insurance on my train station was so high this year.
It’s PC gone mad!
Gone are the days when you could be dragged out of the jacks with your pants around your ankles, beaten by a Garda and sent home to you mother and be thankful for it.
Well there was time travel involved. The cubicle is obviously a portal of some description.:-?
Clearly a case for the Doctor, only a time lord can figure this one out.
I remember seeing one of those rail security guys kick and push a homeless man at Connolly one day for no reason at all. They are on some sort of power trip and get a kick out of pushing people about, some day they will push someone too far and god knows what could happen.
I’ve had the displeasure of meeting a few of these security guards, once at a hospital they flatly refused to get a wheelchair for my dying mum who was being admitted as a medical emergency because I was parked in the wrong spot. Second time was at a hotel in Dublin they started banging on the door accusing us of smoking and threatening us with fines, they obviously had the wrong room and no apology was forthcoming even after I showed them in. My eldest at the time had done a round the world trip he said the eastern bloc people are grand and friendly, just don’t put them behind a counter or in a uniform it’s then the Soviet in them takes over.
Since when is it the job of rail security guards to get a wheelchair for your mother at a hospital??
agree, far less serious but I recall one guy pulling me aside a day I forgot my student travelcard and deliberately embarrass me, got my ticket and wrote on it failure to produce I.D., thats fair enough but for no good reason shout and announce he didnt believe I was a student (yah I just got a backpack on for the craic) humiliating me in front of a busy train station and was pretty sure I saw them givin another lady a hard time on a diff occasion.
You stay classy there tam. I have some calamine lotion for that burn if you’d like to borrow it
What burn?
€10,500 for spending a penny……….
Hardly grounds for deportation??
The racist comment above mine was deleted the seems, you could’ve at least deleted mine so as as mine makes no sense now.
But Dave your comments never make any sense
He deserved it. Pity it won’t come out the “security” mans pocket.
Smoke rising from the cubicle and he pinching a loaf. Must have been a bad night on the Guinness
Heuston we have a problem!
I’ll allow anyone to kick the door in on me for quarter of the price
The toilets were one of the last few places you could have a sit-down in Heuston. Every time I go there lately they’ve removed more and more seating from the station.
And you wonder how insurance prices are going up?
They might be a tad smarter on who they employ the next time so.
Fell into shit and came out smelling of roses
“had gone to the rest room to use the toilet”
Rest room? Was he transported to the US?
Hopefully he will get over this horrific tragedy and buy an 05 volkswagon passat 1.6 l and get a holiday out of it in asia and use some of the toilets over there that have no doors on them and then he wont have to worry about anybody kickin the door in…..
€10.5 K. Wow.
Caught with his pants round his ankles.
Security guards coked up to the eyeballs themselves
Well lf was embarrassed before he must be glowing red with shame now.. nobody knew anything about it before… whereas now its on the internet… I suppose the money will heal his pain.. maybe he’ll spend half on counseling and the rest on the holiday of a lifetime..
Id say security work can be a tough job at times , trying to reason with awkward members of the public , some who are under the influence of drugs & alcohol , do godders & Bible bashers telling you the law , maybe it’s best to turn a blind eye to certain things !!
The ‘do godders’ can be troublesome hoors indeed.
So was he $hitting it before or after the security man barged in?
Often wonder why, when an incident like this is found proven that the private security thugs don’t personally loose their licence to work…….permanently!!!
It’d be an excellent incentive for them to behave reasonably when dealing with members of the public. All too often I’ve noted these very STT employees behave like Nazi boot boys
I don’t understand the logic in “Judge Linnane, who heard there had been several hours difference between the time Masterson said he had been defamed and the incident involving Kozlovas, said the defence case – that Masterson’s claim was a fabrication – had “evaporated” in the witness box when Kozlovas was called.”
Surely, it could be read the other way: Masterson’s case has evaporated.
They don’t seem to bat an eyelid the when there’s someone smoking crack on the redline luas.
Spend a penny to get ten grand good business
There are a few Luas and train stations like this in Dublin with under trained ‘security’ walking around dazed and confused looking for something to do.
Q
uite so.
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