Bin charges protest escalates

The waste charges protest has spread to the South Dublin County Council area, the High Court was told yesterday when injunctions…

The waste charges protest has spread to the South Dublin County Council area, the High Court was told yesterday when injunctions were granted against 16 protesters who had interfered with bin collections.

Mr John Doherty, counsel for the local authority, told the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Finnegan, that waste collections had been impeded in Rathfarnham and Palmerstown.

He said bin lorries had been blockaded until the arrival of gardaí, who noted names and addresses of those involved.

Mr Justice Finnegan made all orders permanent until the full trial of South Dublin Council's action against the 16 named protesters.

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The orders restrained them from interfering with the collection of waste or impeding the passage of bin lorries and harassing binmen or council officials.

Serious injury intended, jury told

Three "new age" travellers acted together with a "common purpose" and intended to cause serious injury to a Portuguese man whom they attacked on a campsite, a prosecution lawyer told a murder trial jury yesterday.

Mr Patrick McCarthy SC was making his closing address to the jury at the Central Criminal Court on the 14th day of the trial of three Britons accused of the murder of Mr Sergio Abru, aged 43.Mr Stuart Spicer (28), Mr Steven Job (31) and Mr Graeme Turnbull (36) deny the murder of Mr Abru at Clashanahy, Ardmore, Co Waterford, between September 6th and 7th, 2002.

Boy from violent home detained

A teenager, from an abusive relationship with his violent father, has been detained for six months for starting a "mini riot" at a bowling alley.

Judge John Coughlan heard at Dublin Children's Court that the 17-year-old youth had pleaded guilty to three counts of assaulting security staff, as well as being in breach of the peace and drunk and disorderly at the Stillorgan Leisureplex on May 16th. He had previously been barred from the complex.

The boy's counsel, Mr Niall Nolan, said much of his offending stemmed from domestic circumstances and a violent relationship with his estranged alcoholic father.

Judge Coughlan noted the boy's difficulties but said he had started a riot and sentenced him to two months' detention in St Patrick's Institution on the assault charges. He also imposed a four-month consecutive sentence for moped theft, and a fine of €50 on the drunk and disorderly charge.

Laois man is acquitted of rape

A jury at the Central Criminal Court has found a Laois man not guilty of raping his best friend's sister in 2001. The jury deliberated for almost four hours on the ninth day of the hearing before it cleared him on all four charges - two of rape, and one each of oral rape and sexual assault.

Mr Justice Philip O'Sullivan discharged the 25-year-old accused man and thanked the jury of nine men and three women for their work on the case.