Paul Murphy and five others acquitted of false imprisonment

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

Paul Murphy and five others were found not guilty of falsely imprisoning Joan Burton and Karen O’Connell in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 29 June 2017. The alleged incident occurred during a water charges protest on Fortunestown Road, Jobstown, on 15 November 2014.

The jury returned unanimous verdicts after more than three hours of deliberations, following a trial lasting over two months. The six men had denied restricting the women’s liberty without their consent.

The court heard the women had been detained in vehicles for three hours as they tried to leave the area. The prosecution alleged the men acted together to trap them, while the defence argued the protest could not amount to false imprisonment.