Mum of teen injured during Finglas arrest calls for gardai involved to be suspended

Published date05 October 2021
Brody McElligott, 14, was arrested on a scrambler motorbike by plainclothes and uniformed gardai after allegedly failing to stop for the officers in Finglas last month.

Footage of the arrest on September 18 was widely circulated on social media.

The teen's mum, Janet McElligott, has opened up about that night and the aftermath in an exclusive interview with Dublin Live.

Janet said: "I was in my mother's house, Saturday evening the 18th and I received a call from a girl who lives in Finglas.

"She said to me that she had just witnessed my son Brody being pursued by the guards and that they had knocked him off his bike.

"I got all shaky and nervous. My husband was with me and I turned to him and said, 'quick, we have to leave, Brody's after being in an incident'."

Janet and her husband raced to Finglas Garda station and asked to see their son.

She said to the gardai on her arrival: "We don't know what condition he's in, we heard he was knocked off a bike. We're worried.

"Then I got a phone call from a friend saying, 'Janet, I'm after sending you a video'."

The video was footage of Brody's arrest that was heavily circulated on social media.

"When I saw the video of my child being battered I just started screaming at the station," said Janet.

"I just was devastated.

"I turned to my husband and I said 'they're after killing him, they're after killing him.'

"I was shaking and a lot of stuff is a blur to me to tell you the truth because I was just in an awful state."

After around an hour of waiting Janet was able to see Brody.

She said: "Blood was covering his face. He was frightened, I knew he was terrified.

"And I just told him he'd be okay and his mammy and daddy were there."

She described seeing the injuries her son had received.

"His face is all swollen on the right hand side, there was blood wiped away from his nose.

"But I thought his nose was broken initially. Over his eye was cut which will leave a scar.

"His front tooth was broken which will have to be seen to in the dentist.

"His bottom lip was badly busted. Just to see that in your own child, it's just not right, it's totally just not right.

"And to think it was grown men who caused those injuries."

According to Janet, a station doctor advised that he did not think Brody needed an ambulance. She and her husband took him home to monitor him themselves.

Janet said: "He started telling us then the next day that he had headaches and he wasn't feeling great.

"We ended up bringing him to the hospital because...

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