Ten Jobstown water charge protesters have their cases thrown out

Cheers broke out and air horns sounded in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday 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.

Mr Gillane said the case against Mr Collins, 22, but a trial date will probably not be required. He will be arraigned on November 20.

Six of the accused had been due to go on trial yesterday, 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, south Dublin on 15 November 2014 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.

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 Ms Burton and Ms O’Connell by restricting their personal liberty without their consent on 15 November 2014, along with violent disorder on the same date.

Adam Lyons, 22, had been charged with falsely imprisoning Ms Burton and Ms 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 on the same date.

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, Mr Herbert, speaking on behalf of the protestors, 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.

Isabel Hayes, CCC.nuacht Teoranta