Ken Purcell’s charges dropped as six others are acquitted in Jobstown trial

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Charges against Ken Purcell were dropped at an earlier stage of the Jobstown false imprisonment trial at the Circuit Criminal Court. The proceedings were reported on 29 June 2017.

Judge Melanie Greally had ruled, in the jury’s absence, that the extension of Mr Purcell’s Garda detention in February 2015 was unlawful. She said the superintendent who authorised the extension had been given a misleading impression of the investigation’s progress. The prosecution later withdrew the charges.

The charges arose from a protest in Jobstown, Tallaght, on 15 November 2014. The prosecution said former tánaiste Joan Burton and her adviser were detained in Garda vehicles against their will for up to three hours.

The six remaining defendants, Paul Murphy, Michael Murphy, Kieran Mahon, Scott Masterson, Frank Donaghy and Michael Banks, were found not guilty by an 11-member jury. They had all pleaded not guilty. The verdicts were unanimous after more than three hours of deliberation.

The prosecution said the six had not engaged in violence but had prevented the women from leaving. Defence counsel argued that the men had taken part in a peaceful political protest, had obstructed a vehicle but had not falsely imprisoned anyone. They said the women entered and remained in the vehicles on Garda advice.