A water protester who had been accused of obstructing a garda had his case dismissed this afternoon in court.
Judge Patricia McNamara said in Tallaght District Court there was not enough evidence to convict Aengus Banks in the case.
Garda Nevan Hartley told the court that at 9pm on August 10th last, he had been one of the gardaí dealing with a “volatile protest” related to the installation of water meters in Daletree Estate in Ballycullen.
He said: “Myself and a number of my colleagues were shepherding the utility vans out of the estate. Aengus Banks seemed to trip up. He grabbed my arm and held me to the ground, preventing me from getting up for a minute or so. I asked him to let me go, he refused to do so.”
Garda Hartley told the judge: “It should be noted that the installation of the meters had finished at 6pm but it wasn’t until 9pm when the vans were let leave the estate.”
Marching out
Mr Banks’s lawyer, George Burns, put it to Garda Hartley that the protesters had been slowly marching out of the estate in front of the utility vans. He said Mr Banks had been pushed to the ground by another garda just before the incident with Garda Hartley.
Mr Banks, (43), Homelawn Drive, Tallaght, had denied obstructing Garda Hartley at Daletree Avenue, Ballycullen, on August 10th, 2015.
After the prosecution closed its case, the court viewed camera-phone footage of the incident supplied by the defence.
It showed Mr Banks being pulled to the ground by a garda and then about 30 seconds later showed him falling to the ground and Garda Hartley falling as well.
Mr Burns argued there was not enough evidence to convict his client of obstruction.
Judge McNamara dismissed the case.