There was an outburst of violence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last night after a jury acquitted a man on all charges arising out of a city-centre collision which caused the death of a father and his daughter in 1999.
Declan Martin (28), from Markievicz House, Pearse Street, was attacked in the courtroom after the jury delivered its not guilty verdicts on seven charges. Several men, shouting obscenities, jumped over benches to assault Mr Martin, who was protected by gardai and hustled out through a side door with his legal advisers.
A large number of men and women had assembled in the court during the day and several of them complained bitterly about the verdicts.
Gardai and prison officers brought the violence to an end within about a minute and nobody was injured.
A few minutes later, stones were thrown at the jury room window by some of the people who had been in the court. Gardai provided transport to bring the four men and eight women jury members away from the Four Courts.
Judge Dominic Lynch thanked the jury for its attention to the case. It was day nine of the trial and the jury had deliberated for almost five hours.
Mr Martin had pleaded not guilty to two counts of dangerous driving causing death; one count of dangerous driving causing serious harm to another person; unlawful use of a vehicle and driving without insurance on September 20th, 1999.
The prosecution alleged that he was the driver of a Saab 9000 car which crashed into a Fiat Uno at the junction of Townsend Street and Moss Street, causing the deaths of Richard Greene and his daughter, Christina. A passenger in the Fiat was seriously injured.