Water charge campaigners vow to continue the protest
THE Jobstown Six, found not guilty of falsely imprisoning former Tanaiste Joan Burton and her adviser Karen O’Connell, gathered outside Dublin’s Central Bank yesterday to celebrate — and to protest.
Scott Masterson, a member of Eirigi and a vocal opponent to water charges for several years, said he had no regrets despite the stress of the trial.
“Many, many people have asked me since the charges were brought if I have any regrets, and was it really worth all the stress that we went through.
“No amount of court cases or possible jail time, or emotional and financial stress, would stop me or the other defendants exposing this rotten, corrupt system.” He said the single most important issue to arise from the trial was the “systematic Garda corruption”.
“Make no doubt about it, if we — the defendants — had sat on our bums and chose not to build the JobstownNotGuilty campaign and fightback, I’ve no doubt in my mind seven innocent people would be in jail today.”
Solidarity TD Paul Murphy has demanded a full independent inquiry into the Garda investigation of the Jobstown protest.
He said the decision of the jury meant that an inquiry into how gardai handled the investigation is required.
“The Director of Public Prosecutions can only decide to prosecute based on the file given to them by gardai — and certainly it is our view a lot in that file was not true. They amount to lies — so of course, there has to be an investigation,” he said.
All six defendants had pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning Ms Burton and Ms O’Connell by restricting their personal liberty without their consent at Fortunestown Road, Jobstown, Tallaght, on November 15, 2014.