The charges of false imprisonment against Solidarity TD Paul Murphy and others should not be confused with kidnapping or the taking and carrying away of someone, the prosecution has told the opening of the trial.
The offence involves the intentional or reckless restriction of a person’s liberty without that person’s consent, the prosecution has told the jury of five women and seven men.
The centuries old common law offence of false imprisonment, which was codified in the 1997 Non-fatal Offences Against the Person Act, is not time dependant but would not include being subjected to a minor obstruction.
It does not require that a person be put in a prison, and can include being restricted in a car, he said.
Sean Gillane SC, for the prosecution, said that the then Tánaiste and leader of the Labour Party, Joan Burton, and her assistant, Karen O'Connell, were, on the prosecution's case, trapped in a Garda car and subsequently a Garda jeep, for a total of approximately 3 hours when a crowd of water protesters gathered round them at Fortunestown Road, Jobstown, Tallaght, Dublin 24, on Saturday, November 15th, 2014.
Ms Burton was attending an awards ceremony in a church in Jobstown organised by the continuing education group, An Cosán, when protesters gathered outside.
At the time there was much comment and opinion about the matter of water charges and Ms Bruton and her assistant, Ms O'Connell, had been subjected to shouting and verbal abuse as they had entered the church.
Mr Murphy, of Kingswood Heights, Tallaght, has pleaded not guilty to the false imprisonment of Ms Burton by restricting her personal liberty without her consent on November 15th, 2014, at Fortunestown Road, Jobstown, Co Dublin.
He has also pleaded not guilty to a second charge in relation to the same offence against Karen O’Connell.
The other defendants have also pleaded not guilty to the same charges. They are Kieran Mahon, a Solidarity councillor, of Bolbrook Grove, Tallaght; Michael Murphy, a Solidarity councillor, of Whitechurch Way, Ballyboden; Scott Masterson, a self-employed courier, of Carrigmore Drive, Tallaght; Ken Purcell, a precision operative of Kiltalown Green, Tallaght; Frank Donaghy, a retired construction worker, of Alpine Rise, Belgard Heights, Tallaght, and Michael Banks, of Brookview Green, Tallaght, whom the court was told does not have an occupation that brings him in contact with the public.
Trapped
Mr Gillane said that the holding of a political view or involvement in a political cause does not confer an immunity to anyone from the operation of the criminal law.
People had a right to express their views with gusto and perseverance but the holding of an opinion did not confer an immunity from the rules of our constitutional democracy that bind us all and by way of those binds set us all free.
He said that evidence would be heard that Ms Burton was struck by a water balloon on her way into the church and that while she and Ms O’Connell were later in an unmarked garda car there was banging on the car and a lot of shouting and roaring. Items were thrown.
A number of people sat down so that the car was, on the prosecution’s case, in effect “trapped”. The jury would be shown footage of this, he said.
Ultimately, after approximately an hour, the two women were moved from the car to a garda jeep, with gardaí forming a human cordon to get them there.
Again the jeep was surrounded and, on the prosecution’s case, frustrated from leaving.
Again there was banging on the vehicle and colourful language directed at the two women, who were trapped in the jeep for approximately two hours.
The jury would hear that at one stage Paul Murphy addressed the group as to whether they would “let her go” if the Garda public order unit withdrew, Mr Gillane said.
He said the members of the jury were now the judges as to matters of fact and will decide what the evidence they are about to hear means.
The hearing of evidence, before Judge Melanie Greally, is expected to last approximately six weeks.
