Joan Burton could easily have have left Jobstown protest on foot, court told

Joan Burton could have “easily” left the Jobstown protest by getting out of the Garda car she was in and leaving on foot, one of those involved in the 2014 protest later told the gardaí.

It was the cars that were detained by the protesters on the day, not the people in them, Michael Banks said during an interview in Crumlin Garda Station on February 12th, 2015.

Mr Banks, who declined to speak with a solicitor prior to the interview, confirmed that he sat behind an unmarked Garda Avensis at Jobstown in 2014 in which the then leader of the Labour Party, Joan Burton, and her then assistant, Karen O’Connell, were being protected by gardaí.

Asked to comment on Ms O’Connell’s statement to the gardaí that the events of that day were the most terrifying she had ever experienced in her life, Mr Banks responded: “She hasn’t had much of a life.”

Between 40 and 50 water charges protesters were preventing the car from reversing out from where it was parked by sitting on the ground behind it, the court heard.

“There was no-one preventing her [Ms O’Connnell] from leaving unless she was planning getting out through the boot,” Mr Banks said in his statement.

Asked if he accepted that Ms O’Connell felt afraid and intimidated during the events, he told the gardaí he could not comment on how she felt.

When it was put to him that the two women spent three-and-a-quarter hours inside the car and, subsequently, a Garda 4x4, Mr Banks said that the two women were “free to leave at any time they wanted to. They refused to.”

The contents of Mr Banks’ statement were confirmed to the court by Garda John Tuthill, when asked by Sean Gillane SC, for the prosecution.

Seven defendants have pleaded not guilty to the false imprisonment of Ms Burton and Ms O’Connell, by restricting their personal liberty without their consent on November 15th, 2014, at Fortunestown Road, Jobstown, Co Dublin.

They are: Solidarity TD Paul Murphy, of Kingswood Heights, Tallaght: Solidarity councillors Kieran Mahon, Bolbrook Grove, Tallaght and Michael Murphy, Whitechurch Way, Ballyboden; Scott Masterson, a self-employed courier, of Carrigmore Drive, Tallaght; Ken Purcell, a precision operative, of Kiltalown Green, Tallaght; Frank Donaghy, of Alpine Rise, Belgard Heights, Tallaght, and Mr Banks, of Brookview Green, Tallaght, whom the court was told does not have an occupation that brings him into contact with the public.

Mr Banks, the court heard, told the gardaí in Crumlin Garda station that the crowd would not let the Avensis leave because Ms Burton was refusing to get out of it and answer questions. He said that if she had got out of the car, nothing would have happened to her physically. “The car was blocked but she was never in any danger.”

He said people sat on the ground behind the car to show it was a peaceful protest and because the gardaí had “come on the heavy”.

He said the tánaiste of Ireland would not have been visiting Tallaght to give out diplomas [to graduates of the An Cosan continuing education centre] if she did not have an agenda. “Now we’re seeing the backlash, with this fake investigation,” he said in his Garda statement. “Joan Burton came for a story and she got it.”

He said that when Ms Burton got into the Avensis she refused to get back out and answer questions that were being put to her by the protesters. So they refused to let the car leave.

The court heard that another of the defendants told the gardaí he believed sit-down protests were a legitimate form of protest.

Frank Donaghy told the gardaí when interviewed that the protest at Jobstown was “peaceful” but also said that “all the trouble” started when the gardaí tried to remove the people who were sitting on the ground blocking the Avensis.

During his interview in Tallaght Garda station, the 71-year-old former construction worker and Solidarity member was told the legislation governing false imprisonment allows for penalties of up to life in jail. “That wouldn’t be long for me,” he responded.

He asked the interviewing gardaí how “a protest can be false imprisonment?” He declined his right to have a solicitor present for the interview.

The court heard that the two women were in an unmarked Garda Avensis car for 71 minutes and subsequently in a Garda Jeep for 124 minutes. Mr Donaghy said he saw Ms Burton in the back of the Avensis.

“She was sitting in the back seat playing with her iPhone and laughing,” Mr Donaghy said of Ms Burton. He said that he had not known there was a protest planned for that day and had been out getting petrol for his car when he came upon it. “I stopped and went over and took part in what was a peaceful protest.”

Mr Donaghy told the gardaí, when arrested on the morning of February 12th, 2015, that all he could remember was “taking part in a sit-down protest and people coming from everywhere”. He was sitting behind the Avensis for five or 10 minutes, he said.

Padraig Dwyer SC, for Mr Donaghy, said that for most of the protest, which lasted a number of hours, his client was carrying a banner saying “No way, we won’t pay”.

He asked Garda Chris Moylan if at any of the Garda case conferences he had attended, there had been any discussion of people being charged with other offences, such as under the public order legislation? The witness said he could not, but he was not at all the case conferences.

The trial before Judge Melanie Greally and a jury continues.