CAMPAIGNERS OPPOSED to the Corrib gas pipeline in Mayo have claimed gardaí used unsafe methods to deal with a protester this week and that another protester was punched in the stomach at Belmullet Garda station.
Two residents say they witnessed what they describe as a “very dangerous” operation, where a female protester had her ankles bound together with cable and her hands handcuffed by gardaí on the roof of a tractor, before she was taken down from the vehicle.
The situation arose outside the Shell Corrib compound at Aughoose on Tuesday evening, when four protesters were arrested for public order offences.
Philomena Moran, a resident of Glenamoy, and her sister-in-law, Bridie Moran, say one of the four, who was removed from the roof of the tractor, would have been at serious risk if the gardaí involved in the operation had slipped.
“The gardaí asked her to come down several times and when she refused they got two ladders,” Ms Moran said.
“However, in binding her ankles and handcuffing her, she would have had no way of protecting herself if she fell,” she said. Neither Ms Moran nor her sister-in-law was involved in the protest.
Eoin Ó Leidhin, of the Rossport Solidarity Camp, said initial contact had been made with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission with a view to lodging a complaint.
Shell to Sea claimed yesterday gardaí who had been “mostly calm” during a “lock-on” protest by two of the four arrested had then become “very aggressive” in handling the tractor protest.
Supt Patrick Diskin of Belmullet Garda station confirmed that four people had been arrested on Tuesday for public order offences, and were brought to Belmullet Garda station.
A file was being prepared for submission to the Director of Public Prosecutions, and he said it would be inappropriate to comment further.
It is understood that no complaint had been made to Belmullet gardaí as of yesterday evening in relation to an alleged assault that Shell to Sea claimed took place at the station.
In a separate development, the Garda ombudsman’s investigation into the tape recording of comments made by several gardaí after a Corrib gas protest on March 31st may take some weeks, as one of five gardaí has not yet been interviewed.
In the recording, gardaí are heard joking about threatening to deport and rape one of two women arrested. The two women were travelling in a separate Garda vehicle.
Two gardaí are no longer being investigated, having already been interviewed. Two other gardaí still under investigation have been interviewed, but one garda has not yet spoken to investigators.
