Six people, including two local councillors, were found guilty yesterday of charges arising out of anti-drugs marches in Arklow, Co Wicklow.
John Burke was found guilty of 11 charges, 10 of them for using threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour and one for possessing knives and other articles.
Fred Hoskins was found guilty of two charges of dangerous driving. His brother, Bruce Hoskins, a councillor, was found guilty of eight charges, four for assault, one for unauthorised possession of firearms and one for threatening to kill or cause serious harm. The remainder were for public order offences. Brian Rees, a councillor, was found guilty of one assault, and one public order offence. Mary Cranny was found guilty of one public order offence and John Dempsey was found guilty of an assault and a public order offence.
At the special all-day sitting in Wicklow, Insp Peter Finn suggested to Bruce Hoskins that Arklow Against Drugs was formed after he had a dispute with two men on his fishing vessel and that the organisation was a way to get back at them.
Hoskins denied this, saying a fellow accused, John Burke, was targeted by a committee decision over who was selling drugs in the town.
Burke was the target of the marches. Once or twice a week up to 200 people marched on his home, shouting and shining torches through the windows. In evidence, Burke said he had kept his family indoors during the marches.
His solicitor, Mr Tom Honan, said that Burke was driven absolutely demented by people marching on his house every Friday night. "If 200 people were outside your door baying for your blood, would you not be upset?".
Burke told the court that on one occasion his wife was assaulted and his children were forced to leave school because they were stopped and threatened that their father would be shot and would have his throat cut. The children had been called drug-pushers and beaten up on the street. "They are still terrified," he said.
Judge Donnacha O Buachalla said he found all the facts proven in each case. They were very much intertwined and there had been an extremely complex web of evidence. He said he would only issue a partial order yesterday against Burke, Bruce Hoskins and Freddie Hoskins. He bound all three to the peace for the next four years and adjourned further sentencing to the March 29th, when he said it would be necessary to review the evidence and the level of intimidation that existed.
However, the Hoskins brothers refused to sign the bond. "Anything I did was to serve my community and I would be letting my community down by signing it," Bruce Hoskins said. The judge gave them seven days to enter into the bond or face three days in prison.
The judge then watched a video taken at the anti-drugs marches. When it concluded, members of the public clapped in support.