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A protester who claimed to be utilizing his proper to free speech when he referred to as gardaí “scumbags” and interfered with an arrest at a contentious demonstration outdoors the Dáil has been spared jail.
Father of 5 Philip Keogh (45) Griffith Park, Finglas, confronted Public Order Act costs for threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour and obstructing gardaí on September twentieth at Molesworth Road.
About 200 protesters held a rally outdoors Leinster Home because the Dáil resumed following the summer season recess, resulting in a number of arrests.
Mr Keogh, a grandfather out of labor because of incapacity, denied the costs and confronted a listening to at Dublin District Court docket.
Choose Susan Fay convicted him and fined him €350, which have to be paid inside 4 months.
Garda Sean Murphy informed the court docket that he had been on obligation outdoors Leinster Home at about 9.55am. Protesters had been on the Molesworth Road – Kildare Road junction. He mentioned his colleagues tried to arrest one other man, and one officer was attempting to place him into the again of a patrol car.
Garda Murphy alleged Keogh intervened and “referred to as him and different gardaí scumbags and was making numerous threats and shouting on the prime of his voice”.
He mentioned Keogh walked towards them and interfered with the arrest by inserting himself between gardaí and the arrested man.
Garda Murphy instantly approached and pulled Keogh again to take away him from the state of affairs.
He mentioned at this level, Keogh “lashed out”.
In cross-examination, defence solicitor Donal Quigley put it to the garda that his consumer had been retrieving a cellphone from the arrested man, Darryl McMahon, to let his household find out about his arrest.
“Which may be so, however he did intervene with the arrest,” replied Garda Murphy. The garda additionally agreed there was a proper to protest however in a peaceable method, “not by breaching public order”.
Mr Quigley advised his consumer was not in breach of public order however merely directing annoyance about his buddy’s arrest. The garda replied that Keogh was threatening and calling them scumbags.
A witness recorded the scene along with her cell phone, and the footage was proven in court docket. She mentioned Keogh reached in for the cellphone and was manhandled.
The accused took the stand and mentioned his buddy had been arrested for no cause. He denied lashing out at gardaí.
Keogh mentioned that after being pulled again from his buddy, he felt a garda’s elbow on his again and tried to guard his face from being slammed into the bottom.
Questioned about calling gardaí scumbags, he accepted he used the phrase however mentioned: “Have you ever heard of one thing referred to as freedom of speech?”
Choose Fay convicted Keogh, who has ten prior convictions for public order, motoring, and a minor assault between 1995 and 2004.
Darryl McMahon (48) of Charlestown Park, Finglas, is accused of threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour on September twentieth at Molesworth Road and failing to adjust to a garda’s path to depart the neighborhood.
He denies the costs, and Choose Fay informed him his listening to would happen in January.
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