‘I genuinely thought we were going to be crushed,’ says garda in Jobstown trial

A garda at the trial of seven men charged with falsely imprisoning TD Joan Burton and her aide in Jobstown said she felt she was going to be "crushed" by a crowd of water protestors.

Garda Marion Power was giving evidence at the trial of Solidarity TD Paul Murphy and six other men, all of whom deny the offences alleged to have taken place in Jobstown on November 15th, 2014.

Mr Murphy (34), together with South Dublin Councillors Kieran Mahon (39) and Michael Murphy (53) and four other men, are charged with falsely imprisoning Ms Burton and her adviser Karen O'Connell by restricting their personal liberty without their consent at Fortunestown Road, Jobstown, Tallaght.

Garda Power told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that she had her arm around Ms Bruton to shield her from the crowd as the former tánaiste and her assistant, Karen O’Connell, were escorted through a “human cordon” of gardaí­ from an unmarked garda car to a 4x4.

“I heard a man say, ‘Let’s just petrol bomb them all out of here,’” Garda Power told Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting. “A large group of people were shouting abuse, banging on the car, pushing bars in on the car.

“The protestors were pushing in on top of us, spitting on us. I felt like I was being crushed. Joan said she’d lost her shoe; I told her we had to keep moving to maintain our safety, I genuinely thought we were going to be crushed,” said Garda Power.

She said there was “constant abuse and horrendous language the whole time”.

Supt Daniel Flavin told the court that he decided in the interests of safety to transfer the tánaiste and Ms O'Connell from the unmarked Garda car.

“ I didn’t want a siege situation,” he said, describing a “very hostile, tense environment” with a lot of pushing and abusive comments.

Supt Flavin said he recognised Paul Murphy on the loudhailer addressing the crowd and heard him saying, “Will we let her go, or will we keep her here all night?”

The superintendent said he told Mr Murphy that whatever his political motives were, this had gone on long enough and that there were two women trapped in the car who were entitled to go.

“Mr Murphy said he had no control over the protesters,” said Supt Flavin.