A REMAINING JOBSTOWN water charges protester accused of criminal damage to a garda car has pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Dylan Collins, 22, of Bawnlea Green, Tallaght, Dublin today pleaded guilty to criminal damage of a rear window on a marked Hyundai garda car at Fortunestown Road, Jobstown, Tallaght on 15 November 2014.
Former Tánaiste Joan Burton and her advisor Karen O’Connell had left a graduation ceremony at An Cosán Education Centre in Jobstown on that date when protesters surrounded their car, delaying them for three hours.
Last June, six men, including Solidarity TD Paul Murphy, were found not guilty by a jury of falsely imprisoning the women following a nine-week trial. Charges against a seventh man, Ken Purcell, were dropped halfway through the trial.
Charges dropped
In October, charges against 10 of Collins’ former co-accused were dropped by Judge Melanie Greally, to cheers and air horns sounding in court.
Prosecution barrister Seán Gillane SC told the court the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had requested that a nolle prosequi (a formal notice of abandonment) be entered in respect of all of the charges against those 10 accused, except for one count of criminal damage against Collins.
Judge Martin Nolan today remanded Collins on continuing bail until 18 January for his sentence hearing which is expected to last half an hour.
His former co-accused Carol Purcell (58), Declan Kane (49), Glen Carney (22), Keith Preston (38), Thomas Kelly (35), Paul Kiernan (39) and Peter Herbert (66) had been charged with falsely imprisoning Burton and O’Connell by restricting their personal liberty without their consent at the 2014 protest, along with violent disorder on the same date.
Adam Lyons (22) had been charged with falsely imprisoning Burton and O’Connell along with one count of violent disorder and one count of criminal damage to a garda car windscreen on the same date. Antoinette Kane (24) and Calvin Carlyle (20) were charged with violent disorder at the same location on the same date.
Collins was charged with violent disorder as well as criminal damage to a garda car rear window on the same date.
Outside the court building last October, Herbert spoke on behalf of the protesters and said that they would continue to demand a public inquiry into the prosecution and to campaign for the dropping of a conviction of a minor found guilty of false imprisonment.
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