Shell to Sea Court Cases - 19 Oct

mayo | environment | news report

Friday October 19, 2007 16:59

by Rudiger

Summary of the Shell to Sea cases heard in Belmullet on the 19th of October 2007

Martin & Pat O'Donnell on the day of the alleged assault

This morning a special sitting of Belmullet District Court took place to deal with assault, obstruction and threating & abusive behaviour charges dating from Friday, 19th January 2007 against 4 Shell to Sea protestors. It had been thought that the case would be heard today but Judge Mary Devins adjourned the case until the 12th of December. She adjourned the case in order to let the prosecution time to prepare to answer some serious reservations she had regarding the case.
Firstly the method and time it had taken to issue proceedings against the 4 men was raised by the judge. Basically, the Gardaí initiated proceedings against the 4 men over the incident just 2 days before the 6 month time window in which proceedings could be taken expired. The men then received the summonses in August. Solicitor for the 4 men, Alan Gannon stated in court that he believed it was because the Gardaí found out that the 4 men had initiated a civil case against the Gardaí involving the issue, that prompted the Gardaí to issue counter-charges against the men.
Secondly, the judge also stated her misgivings about some of the evidence that the gardaí planned to use. The garda video evidence mysteriously has a 7 minute gap in it and by pure coincidence that 7 minutes contained the alleged assault on the garda. The official garda explanation of this missing video section is that the video camera must have received a knock which put the camera on standby and that the camera operator, Garda Greg Burke believed that he was recording as normal.
Finally the judge stated that she had serious concerns on the fact that the state had dropped assault charges which had been initiated against John Monaghan with regard to the incident at McGrath’s Pier on 11th of June. This case had appeared before Judge Devins although she had sent the case to the Circuit Court, whereupon the DPP had dropped the case. Judge Devins stated that she was concerned that it was seen that a lesser burden of proof was needed to pursue a conviction in the District court than in the Circuit court.

It should be worth noting that the incident the charges arise from, resulted in 3 of the men involved going to hospital and also 1 of the men requiring dental treatment on the day. I’m unsure as to what injuries are claimed on the garda side. For a rundown on the day in question, check out: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/80543

The case of the alleged assault by John Monaghan outside the polling station was also up for mention, where the state had been asked to produce evidence that gardaí are allowed in a polling station. This case was adjourned until the 14th of November (which will be the 7th time of appearance) in order to let the judge go through this evidence.

It has to be becoming apparent to Judge Devins at this stage that the whole Garda operation regarding Shell 2 Sea has serious questions behind it. So far, in dealing with S2S cases, Judge Devins has kept evidence very focused on the narrow details of the cases and quickly cut off evidence of wider environmental concerns or wider gardaí brutality. But every new case that she hears gradually draws in more and more details of what the gardaí are doing to the local people, and it seems that she is slowly becoming more aware of the suitation. In the first case involving Shell 2 Sea protestors in front of her, she chose to believe garda evidence over protestors’ evidence and found 3 men guilty of assault (which is being appealed), hopefully from now on she will hold garda evidence up to more scrutiny.

Meanwhile, yesterday Shell began boring test holes in Glengad where the proposed pipeline would make landfall. This is situated about 200m away from Rossport Solidarity Camp, who have been ordered to dismantle the camp because of damage the camp was doing to the ecology of the area. Yesterday at 6am Shell moved in a port cabin and a drilling machine to the area where a pressure reduction facility is proposed to be built. This morning about 25 people turned up to block access to the road down to the landfall area although no Shell employee turned up to gain entry (the road still hasn’t received planning permission, some of which in on an SAC). The presence was maintained until 10am when people dispersed to go to court, it seems sometime after this that Shell workers began drilling down there again.

Shell road through the SAC

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Comments (14 of 14)

if it quacks like a duck!

by me myself and I

Fri Oct 19, 2007 20:26

The first thing one has to ask themselves is why charges were dropped against JM, the excuse of a lesser burden of proof was needed to pursue a conviction in the District court than in the Circuit court doesn't really make sense.
If the DPP believed he had sufficient evidence to charge JM with assault, he (DPP) would have undoubtedly assumed that if convicted JM would have appealed to the CC, Judge Devins making "excuses" for the DPP is laughable in light of this fact.
Secondly, the case of the bellanaboy three been adjourned until December, here again something is not right, the judge has as much evidence now as she had when she convicted them in the district court!
So why the attention to detail now?

Here is my theory.
The government/Shell/Gardai and others are well aware that if JM or the Bellanaboy 3 are convicted and jailed it will give a new lease of life to the S2S campaign, they believe that the campaign has lost momentum and that without a major development (jailing a S2S'r) this campaign is waning.
By deferring the case until December the EPA will have announced its decision on the IPPC licence, as this announcement will have a huge impact on the campaign.
I am not usually one for conspiracies, but this series of events in recent days are unusual and unlikely coincidental,

Very good report - Again.

by Niall

Fri Oct 19, 2007 22:07

Another very informative court report from Belmullet/Bellanaboy. So important for people around the country to get the insight you're giving.

Thanks again.

Video evidence

by Seán Ryan

Fri Oct 19, 2007 22:37

If the video camera got a 'knock' that put it into standby, the last bit of footage, before the 7 minute gap appears, would have recorded the alleged 'knock.'

It's my bet that no such knock appears in the footage. Also, it's stated that the Garda who was using the camera didn't notice that the camera had gone into standby and just continued to film thinking the camera to be working normally. Complete bullshit. If the camera was in standby, you'd not get a picture in the viewfinder or the display panel. Unless the Garda was aiming blind he could not have been unaware that the camera was in standby. It's quite unbelievable the amount of crimes the Gardaí allege, the amount of video footage recorded and the fact that not one singular crime has been recorded.

Remember folks, tis a possible 7 year stint for perjury. That's probably why the Gardaí used guesswork with regard to explaining the missing 7 minutes rather than detective work. Guesswork has no place in a Courtroom.

Perjury might be hard to prove, however, perversion of the course of justice amongst other things only requires a preponderance of evidence. Throw in defamation and you get a jury to decide the issue.

You reap what you sow.

Absolutely.

Fri Oct 19, 2007 22:59

And it's not the first time that Garda Greg Burke MY165 has claimed 'a camera fault' in an important case.

Thanks for the report.

by Jimbob

Sat Oct 20, 2007 01:49

Always good to hear what's going on. Beir bua.

DA51

by Mr. G - mindfreedom

Sun Oct 21, 2007 09:58

I see that Garda DA51 was back in Belmullet for the case but wearing different numbers , I think they were DB23. Anybody know what part of the country this relates to ?

Sergeant Chisholm

by Ljcool - S2S

Sun Oct 21, 2007 10:43

I also saw Sgt. Chisolm in court on friday. However no sign of his tacky camper van. I think DA51 may be from Limerick side.

lost video

by madam k

Sun Oct 21, 2007 16:18

`>"The official garda explanation of this missing video section is that the video camera must have received a knock which put the camera on standby and that the camera operator, Garda Greg Burke believed that he was recording as normal."

The defense should obtain master copy of tape and check the time line.If the 7 missing minute have been edited out the timeline will have changed .
It is also be possible to determine if a tape is master or an edited duplicate.

camera model

by wal

Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:21

"the camera operator, Garda Greg Burke believed that he was recording as normal"

anybody who has ever used a modern video recorder will know that this is rubbish. You can clearly whether a camera is recording. To miss this for 7 minutes is incredible. Let's have the make and model of the camera and put it to the test.

Gardai lies

by Pat - none

Mon Oct 22, 2007 13:59

none

Correct me if I am wrong. As far as I know, all moderen cameras automatacally shut down after five minutes.
After five minutes this action would come into play and the screen would go blank. The camera shuts down.
At this point the opperater would realise the error and switch it back on. He would then press the record button stright away. This action just taks seconds, so he sholud only be missing a little over five minutes.
Oh what a tangled web we wieve, when we set out to decieve.

Leave it to the Garda shitinthecorner

Mon Oct 22, 2007 14:04

PS.........I meant to say that the camera shuts down after five minutes when left on stanby.
I hope this makes it a little clearer

Shell drilling on SAC

by Eoin - RSC

Mon Oct 22, 2007 18:33

Today, Shell have moved their drilling machine and equiptment even closer to the camp and are continuing boring test holes. Where they are boring now is almost certainly on the SAC. Here's some photos I took today, the first being from the camp.

Photo from the Camp

Boring on an SAC

Scene from Glengad road

SAC

by JM

Mon Oct 22, 2007 23:50

Rossport

If RPS are test-drilling for Shell anywhere on the old Glengad wayleave (which forms part of all three re-routing options) then they are within the Glenamoy Bog Complex Special Area of Conservation.

Proposed Glengad landfall (SAC shaded yellow)

Judgement

by Mr. G

Sat Oct 27, 2007 09:45

The courts will decide about the Garda camera , your are entitled to your views but they are not based on the full facts. This is the reason that we have a court system . This is the reason that we have laws. Remember the Clash song ' I FOUGHT THE LAW ,BUT........

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Shell to Sea Court Cases - 19 Oct

Comments (14 of 14)