MARCHES on the homes of suspected drug dealers were described yesterday as "lynching parties" by a judge who jailed an anti drugs activist for a year on an assault charge.
Judge Gerard Haughton said that groups could not be allowed to take the law into their own hands by demanding that people leave an area on the basis of rumour.
He sentenced Joseph Trimble (33), of Shamrock Place, Dublin, to 12 months' imprisonment for common assault on a former neighbour, Ms Linda Keoghan, on November 16th last.
Dublin District Court heard that the defendant was part of an "anti drugs" patrol that night. He had followed Ms Keoghan down Dunnes Street and had jabbed his finger in her chest and shoulder, demanding that she admit to being a drug pusher.
Ms Keoghan told the court that she had been targeted by local "vigilantes", who had organised marches on her home. "My flat was burned out and I have lost everything over them. My children were taken off me", she said.
Under questioning, she denied being a drugdealer. She said she had been on Methadone for two years and had been off heroin completely for the past year.
Trimble, a father of six, denied assault and said that he, along with his father and two other men had been patrolling the area to ensure that a local playing pitch was "free of needles". He admitted attending a number of ICON marches in the area, but said he was not a member of that organisation. He denied being a vigilante.
Judge Haughton was told that the defendant had seven previous convictions. These included assault and offences involving stolen cars.
The judge said that communities who felt they had a drug problem should cooperate with the Garda or organise marches to the local Garda station, but they could not be allowed to "condemn and convict people in public".
He said it was only a small step from marching on someone's house, demanding that they leave, to burning them out or, as had occurred in Northern Ireland recently, blowing off someone's leg because of rumours of criminal activity.