Judge finds protesters at airport were in contempt

Eight men, including a number of trade union officials, were ordered to pay legal costs yesterday arising out of a protest at Dublin Airport.

The men told the High Court yesterday they had participated in a protest against Cityjet Handling at Dublin Airport because of concerns the company was breaching health and safety laws. All denied allegations of intimidation and obstruction.

However, dealing with an application by the company for orders for the committal to prison of the men for breach of court orders, Mr Justice Kelly said he did not believe the protest on Tuesday last was out of concerns about health and safety. Rather, this was a "label to give respectability to a protest".

While he found all eight men in contempt of court, he accepted their undertakings that they would not participate in any other protests at Dublin Airport. He noted the men had come to court, accepted they had breached orders restraining interference with Cityjet Handling's business and that some had apologised for their conduct.

However, the matter was still serious, the judge added. He made an order directing the men to pay the costs of the company's application.

The eight men before the court were Mr Colm Breathnach; Mr Denis Keane, president of the Civil and Public Services Union; Mr Michael O'Brien, a member of the executive of the Public Service Executive Union; Mr Ray McLaughlin; Mr Fintan Kelly, a member of the Building and Allied Trades Union; Mr John Daniel, a computer engineer; Mr Paul Moloney and Mr George Whelan.

On Thursday, Mr Roddy Horan applied for orders for the attachment and committal of the eight men, and another man, Mr Peter Farrell. Counsel alleged the nine men had breached orders of the High Court, granted last October, including orders restraining interference with the business of Cityjet Handling. It was alleged they had disrupted loading activities at a warehouse.

Mr Farrell was not in court yesterday but Mr Justice Kelly said the company had not established that it had affected personal service of the proceedings on all the men.

The eight men told the court they were aware the court had made orders relating to Cityjet but they did not know the precise terms of those orders and were unaware, when they attended a protest at Dublin Airport last Tuesday night, that they they were in breach of the orders. They denied allegations of engaging in abusive language or intimidating conduct.

Mr Keane said he had no intention of breaching a court order when he attended the protest and was there to hand out health and safety leaflets. He apologised to the court and said he would not attend a protest at Dublin Airport in the future.

Mr O'Brien said Cityjet was a company "riding roughshod over health and safety issues". He accepted he should have made more inquiries about the terms of the court order.

After the eight defendants had given evidence, Mr Roderick Horan, for Cityjet, said his client was not waging a war of attrition and just wanted to conduct its business, which had been disrupted for several weeks.

Mr Justice Kelly said members of trade unions engaged in legitimate disputes have a wide immunity for a range of activities. This did not extend to trespass, intimidation, obstruction or breaches of the law.

He found all eight men were in contempt of the court order.