CHARGES AGAINST 10 of the 11 Jobstown water charge protesters have been formally dropped.
Cheers broke out and air horns sounded in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today after Judge Melanie Greally formally discharged all but one of the remaining Jobstown accused.
Prosecution barrister Sean Gillane SC told the court the DPP had requested that a nolle prosequi be entered in respect of all of the charges against the remaining accused, except for one count of criminal damage against one accused, Dylan Collins.
Gillane said the case against Collins (22) of Bawnlea Green, Tallaght, was proceeding, but a trial date will probably not be required. Instead, he will be arraigned on 20 November.
Six of the accused had been due to go on trial today, while the remaining five were due to face trial next year.
Former Tánaiste Joan Burton and her advisor Karen O’Connell had left a graduation ceremony at An Cosan Education Centre at Jobstown, west Dublin, on 15 November 2014 when protesters surrounded their car, delaying them for three hours.
Last June, six men, including Solidarity-People Before Profit 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.
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 Fortunestown Road, Jobstown, Tallaght along with violent disorder on the same occasion.
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.
Dylan Collins (21) was charged with violent disorder as well as criminal damage to a garda car rear window on the same date.
As Judge Greally left court, the room erupted in cheers, with protesters sounding airhorns and chanting: “What do we want? A public inquiry. When do we want it? Now.”
Outside the court building Herbert, speaking on behalf of the protesters, 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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