A judge has said that he was satisfied a schoolboy was guilty of the false imprisonment of former tánaiste Joan Burton during a water charges protest in Jobstown two years ago.
However, Judge John King said he was discharging the youth conditionally on good behaviour for nine months. The teenager will not have a criminal record.
The youth denied falsely imprisoning the former Labour Party leader and her adviser Karen O’Connell, who were allegedly trapped in two Garda cars for three hours during a demonstration at the Fortunestown Road in Jobstown, Tallaght, on November 15th, 2014. He was aged 15 at the time.
The Dublin West TD had been at a graduation ceremony at An Cosán education centre when a water charges protest took place outside.
She told the court earlier that she was frightened and did not think she had the alternative of being able to get out of Garda cars surrounded by people shouting abuse and banging on windows.
In closing submissions in the four-day trial, which saw daily protests outside the court from anti-water charge activists, the 17-year old’s legal team argued that the prosecution was a “recipe for totalitarianism”.
Human rights
Asking the judge to dismiss the charges, they contended that the prosecution was not in accordance with Irish or European human rights laws and that the State had not made out a case to answer.
However, the judge found the personal liberty of Ms Burton and Ms O’Connell was restricted and they were forcibly detained during the incident.
The judge noted Ms Burton, in evidence, said when she was walking into the church, for a conferring ceremony, the boy was holding a phone close to her and saying “talk to us, talk to us”.
YouTube footage showed the incident and, the judge said, he did not accept a person behind the boy obstructed him so he could not move out of the way.
Other footage showed the boy with a megaphone and another clip showed him “at the very least” in animated conversation with gardaí. He said the boy was an active participant in blocking the car and “most damning of all”, when told Ms Burton and Ms O’Connell were getting into an unmarked Garda car, he ran and called other protesters and they surrounded the car.
He also used a megaphone and shouted at protesters to sit down and chanted “no way, we won’t pay”, the judge said.
Judge King highlighted RTÉ footage that showed the boy in front of the vehicle and in front of the public order unit. He said the boy was present from the walk to the church to the slow march of the Garda vehicle out of the area and was an active participant.
Not peaceful
He said all elements of common design were made out and the assembly was not peaceful and was contrary to public order and morality.
This meant it did not attract the protection of the Constitution or of the European Convention on Human Rights. He said if the accused wished to challenge the constitutionality of the legislation under which he was charged, or its compatibility with the convention, the District Court was not the appropriate venue.
He added rights under both were not unqualified and depended on the facts of the case.
The court heard earlier that, in a statement to gardaí, the boy said he was sorry for “participating, and the stress I am learning I placed the tánaiste under”. He also said he was sorry for wasting his mother’s and Garda time.
Det Insp Derek Maguire told the court it was like a “rugby maul” when he tried to escort Ms Burton from An Cosán to the nearby St Thomas’s Church for the second part of the graduation ceremony.
He told the court Ms Burton “got hit with some kind of object in the head”. Her shoe came off and there was “pure aggression” during the stand-off.
Speaking outside the court after sentencing, the boy’s father said the case would be appealed.
“We are not happy. He is not guilty of anything; he didn’t do anything,” he said. “There is no justice in this country for young people.”
His words were greeted with cheers from a crowd of more than 100 protesters.
