Jobstown Defendants Not Guilty - The Role of the Gardai and the Judicial Process

The six remaining defendants in the Jobstown trial have been found Not Guilty by unanimous verdict in the Central Criminal Court on charges of falsely imprisoning Joan Burton and Karen O'Connell during the Jobstown protest in November 2014.

From day one there was an orchestrated political campaign against Paul Murphy, Solidarity, other left activists and a community protest designed to clamp down on effective protests against the neo-liberal establishment and their pro-rich austerity policies.

From the day of the protest false accusations were made by the political establishment - Enda Kenny claimed that Joan Burton was 'effectively kidnapped' - Leo Varadkar claimed that the protest was organised and orchestrated by Paul Murphy and the Anti-Austerity Alliance - David Begg claiming that Karen O'Connell was kicked and beaten by protesters - Noel Coonan claiming that we faced an 'Isis situation' because of Jobstown. The media also played their role with multiple headlines about 'Mob Rule'.

The Gardai immediately began acting as a political police force - denying the Anti-Austerity Alliance a fund-raising permit on the grounds it could be used for 'illegal purposes'.

97 Gardai were assigned to investigate the protest. They drafted a list of tasks for the investigation. Number 4 on the list was a door-to-door canvass in Jobstown to gather information about the protest - this was dropped from the task list - as was every other task that might produce evidence that would undermine the attempt to ensure a prosection against Paul Murphy and others on the protest.

In total 230 witness statements were taken - 180 of them from Gardai who attended the protest - the remaining statements were from Joan Burton, Karen O'Connell and employees of An Cosan. Not one single witness statement was taken from anyone who participated in the protest. Hundreds of hours of video footage was gathered and viewed. It later emerged during cross-examination that Garda wrote their witness statements while viewing the video footage under coaching from the Garda responsible for viewing the video footage.

The Gardai staged dawn raids on the homes of the defendants, carrying out the arrests with armed units in an attempt to further criminalise the protesters. During questioning Gardai remotely monitored the interviews. One defendants did not even know he was under investigation until his arrest and he was threatened with a life sentence by Gardai during questioning. Another defendant, Ken Purcell, was illegally detained by the Gardai which ultimately resulted in the charges against him being dismissed last week.

The file sent to the DPP was structured to ensure that the DPP could instigate charges of false imprisonment against protesters. The DPP decided to charge the defendants on indictment in the Central Criminal Court to ensure that the defendants would face charges that on conviction could result in a potential life sentence. This resulted in the defendants having to apply for legal aid which was granted - and the hiring of senior counsel, junior counsel and their support teams for the defendants.

In the run up to the trial the DPP attempted to gag the defendants - claiming that they were in breach of their bail conditions. The DPP attempted to stop the defendants from commenting on the trial, from being part of the #JobstownNotGuilty campaign, from participating in any support activities for the defendants etc. The defendants arrived at the hearing on the DPP's attempt to change their bail conditions stating that they would refuse to accept any attempt to be gagged and they were willing to go to prison if the Judge ruled in favour of the DPP. Ultimately the judge threw out all the attempts by the DPP to gag the defendants. The DPP also attempted to fix the jury - with the judge throwing out most of the requests.

Late last year a teenage boy was brought to court charged with the false imprisonment of Joan Burton and Karen O'Connell. The boy was 15 years old at the time of the protest. He is well known locally as a principled young man who is active within his community helping others young and old. He was tried in the judge only Children's Court. He was ultimately convicted on the charge by the judge in the Children's Court - his conviction is being appealed.

The trial judge decided to split the trial of the remaining 18 Jobstown defendants into three seperate trials against the wishes of all the defendants. The trial of the first seven defendants began on 24 April. The first three defendants on the indictment were Solidarity TD Paul Murphy, Solidarity Councillor Mick Murphy and Solidarity councillor Kieran Mahon - three elected public representatives.

Almost from the outset the reporting of the trial by the national media was biased against the defendants. The media has a legal responsibility to report court proceedings in a fair and unbiased fashion. At the end of the first week defence counsel raised with the judge the biased nature of the media reports and the judge acknowledged that the reports in the media were biased against the defendants. The national media continued to report the trial in a biased fashion right up until the end of the trial today.

The prosecution produced Joan Burton, Karen O'Connell, Katherine Zappone and a large number of Gardai as witnesses. Joan Burton testified about how 'frightened' she was during the protest - at one stage she asked for the jury to be removed because she was upset watching a video being shown by the prosecution. However, under cross-examination defence counsel showed the court videos of Joan Burton laughing and joking, reading a newspaper, using her phone and behaving in a generally relaxed fashion in the Garda car. Defence counsel asked her if she told her assistant to go onto social media and post comments about the mothers of Jobstown not taking care of their children. Burton denied that she did this. Yet the defence was able to produce a video recorded on Joan Burton's own phone that showed she did indeed ask her assistant to do what she had denied in testimony. Joan Burton repeatedly avoided or refused to answer questions put to her by defence counsel resulting in the judge instructing her to answer questions. Giving evidence Katherine Zappone contradicted several assertions made by Joan Burton while in the witness box. Karen O'Connell followed Joan Burton's line of testimony - until defence counsel produced the now famous video of Karen O'Connell calling those on the protest the 'f*ucking dregs of society'. It is worth noting that the driver of the Garda jeep turned off the automatic voice recorder in the jeep that would have provided crucial evidence about what Joan Burton and Karen O'Connell discussed while in the jeep.

However, far more important and revealing was the testimony of the large number of Garda witnesses. Each Garda witness made the same assertion - the protest was organised and orchestrated by Paul Murphy who was supported by the other defendants. One Garda witness accused Paul Murphy of directing people where to go and what to do - yet video evidence produced proved that Paul Murphy did not and could not have been where the Garda claimed he was and done what he was supposed to do. The three most senior Gardai at the protest claimed that Paul Murphy asked the crowd 'will we let her go or will we keep her here all night' - using the exact same terminology. The prosecution argued that this proved that Burton and O'Connell were falsely imprisoned and Paul Murphy was responsible. Defence counsel produced video evidence that proved Paul Murphy never uttered the words 'will we keep her here all night'. It is worth noting that a clip from this video was shown on the RTE news the night of the protest - yet in two years of investigation the Gardai never found this video and didn't include it in the book of evidence.

Two Gardai during testimony accused Mick Murphy of making verbal threats to Joan Burton. Again the defence produced a video that proved that Mick Murphy did not threaten Joan Burton. Again the Gardai in two years of investigation failed to find this video and include it in the book of evidence. There are numerous other examples of Garda witnesses telling lies and contradicting other prosecution witnesses while giving testimony.

The prosecution repeatedly made the claim that the vehicle containing the two women was unable to leave and this proved false imprisonment. However, the defence counsel showed in court a video from a Garda helicopter where the pilot is heard saying to the Gardai on the ground 'they could have reversed away from the protest ages ago... No hassle at all' - this was the video the jury requested to see this morning before they returned their not guilty verdict.

On Monday the judge began her summation and charging the jury. As soon as she finished her directions to the jury, defence counsel lodged objections to the directions the judge had given the jury. Many people have pointed out that the judge in the trial was appointed by the government of which Jan Burton was Tainiste a week after the Jobstown protest. Two days of legal argument followed where the defence barristers hailed the judge over the coals about here directions to the jury. This is very unusual in Irish criminal cases and resulted in the judge recalling the jury to issue new directions again something very unusual in Irish criminal cases. In total the judge had to change completely her directions on 18 specific issues relating to the case - something unheard of. She also admitted making a serious error in judgement during the trial in allowing the jury hear that the defendants could be sentenced to life imprisonment.

This investigation and trial raises serious issues in relation to the operation of the Gardai and the nature of the judicial process in Ireland. It also raises questions about the influence of the political establishment over the judiciary and the role of the media in promoting a certain political agenda. This was a criminal case that should never have even been instigated more than two years ago by the DPP and the Gardai. Paul Murphy has already called for a public inquiry into the use of the judicial process and the Gardai for political purposes. This was a political investigation and political trial instigated initially by false allegations by leading members of the government and followed through by the Gardai and the DPP. It must also be remembered that the same political leaders and Gardai have engaged in a secret operation, Operation Mizen, headed by the husband of the Garda Commissioner, to spy on the anti-water charges movement.

The six defendants who were found not guilty today along with a seven defendant who had the charges against him dismissed have had to endure two years of stress, disruption to the family, to their jobs with the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence hanging over their head. The state has wasted €10million on trying to stitch-up political and community activists who have challenged the political consensus of the political establishment in this country.

Another eleven defendants face charges of false imprisonment and other charges over the next twelve months. Charges where the evidence has been shown to have been falisified and the prosecution witnesses have been proven to be unreliable. The charges against these eleven defendants should immediately be dropped rather than be dragged out for another twelve months forcing them to go through two seperate court cases - and all so the political establishment can attempt to threaten communities who are forced to protest against the impact of government policies.