Belmullet District Court Report - Shell and Mayo County Council stand co-accused of obstructing the public highway.

mayo | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday December 12, 2012 22:09 by RSC - RSC

- Partners in crime try to avoid further embarrassment by settling with the plaintiff out of court -

Today in Belmullet district court Shell and Mayo County Council stood co-accused in a case for blocking the road during the disastrous attempt to deliver the Tunnel Boring Machine to Shell's tunnelling site at Aughoose in August this year. The co-accused settled out of court with the plaintiff and had the case struck out before the details were made public.

Shell blocking the road earlier this year

It is rumoured however that the case was taken by a fisherman who was suing for obstruction and loss of earnings, and that the plaintiff settled out of court for one thousand Euro. During the TBM debacle in August the main Ballina North coast road was closed while Shell's jack-knifed lorry carrying the TBM blocked the road for days.

This is dangerous territory for Shell and the County Council as literally thousands of road users were obstructed at the time in the same way. - Watch this space....

Shell to Sea cases
There were four Shell to Sea cases up for mention.

It was the first appearance for a campaigner arrested on Monday morning during an action blocking access to Shell's tunnelling compound. An order for the Garda book of evidence was made and the case was put back to the 9th of January.

The next case was for obstructing machinery laying a water pipe to the tunnelling compound. This was also put back to the 9th of January.

The third case was for a lock-on action that blocked the TBM for a number of hours in August while in transit to Mayo from Dublin port. In his absence the defendant - who had already plead guilty - was given the probation act and so avoided conviction.

In the last case Shell to Sea spokesperson Maura Harrington was due to set dates for hearings to defend cases arising from the TBM debacle. She wasn't in court though and a bench warrant was issued for her arrest. Sgt. Butler was visibly disappointed when she arrived in just before the court was finished for the day and the warrant was vacated.