Garda tells trial that Jobstown protest was like a ‘rugby maul’

A GARDA inspector has told a trial it was like a "rugby maul" when he tried to escort then Tanaiste Joan Burton through an angry crowd at the Jobstown water protest.

A 17-year-old boy denies falsely imprisoning Ms Burton (67) and her political advisor Karen O'Connell during the water protest at the Fortunestown Road in Jobstown in Tallaght, Dublin, on November 15th, 2014. He was aged 15 at the time and cannot be named because he is still a minor.

Then Labour leader had been attending a graduation event at 11.30am at An Cosán adult education centre.

It is alleged trouble broke out and she and her entourage were trapped in cars surrounded by protesters for about three hours.

Barrister Tony McGillicuddy has said that the prosecution case is that Ms Burton and her advisor Ms O’Connell were detained by the actions of the teenage defendant in conjunction with the actions of others.

The non-jury trial resumed before Judge John King at the Dublin Children's Court on Tuesday.

Det Inspector Derek Maguire told the court he was with Ms Burton and other gardai as they tried to force their way from An Cosan to the nearby St Thomas’s Church for the second part of the graduation ceremony.

He said there were 10 to 15 protesters but the crowd got bigger. He said Ms Burton “ got hit with some kind of object in the head. It was thrown from behind,” he said. He said Ms Burton went into the church and he spoke to her advisor Ms O’Connell . He noticed that outside the church the number of people gathering was increasing and “seemed to be getting larger and larger”. He told Ms O’Connell it would be better to leave because the number of protesters was “too big at this point”.

More gardai came and parked an unmarked Garda car outside the church; they intended to use it to take Joan Burton and Ms O’Connell away.

He said the protesters then noticed the unmarked garda car. and it was decided to use another unmarked car . At 12.30pm he left the church with Ms O’Connell and Ms Burton and the pair got into the back of the car. “The protesters observed what was happening and ran to this car ,” he said.

He said they tried to reverse out but protesters surrounded it and he created a cordon of gardai around the car . He said the protesters sat down and it was impossible to move without causing injuries .

He said he got more concerned and called for extra assistance. He said protesters were shouting and shaking the car . He said he directed to desist but “none of them would comply with that direction at all”.

He said the teenage defendant had a loud hailer and was shouting at the crowd to block the car . He distinctly recalled the teenager had a blue hooded top and grey tracksuit bottoms. He described the crowd as very aggressive and said there was lots of “vitriol”. He said abuse was shouted and there was a “very uneasy feeling, a lot of tension in the air”.

He said a lot of the protesters had mobile phones including the defendant who was using one to film the events and “appeared to be pointing the phone quite close to our faces”. He said his colleagues formed a human cordon around the car until assistance arrived and it was decided to move her to a garda SUV which was parked nearby.

Gardai formed two lines and moved Ms Burton towards the SUV and the crowd converged , he said. “It was like a rugby maul,” he told the court. He said that Joan Burton’s shoe came off and there was “pure aggression”.

It was day two of the trial which resumes on Wednesday