STROKESTOWN EVICTION TRIAL

FOUR SECURITY MEN WERE BRUTALLY BEATEN

mous guilty verdicts in respect of the charge of violent disorder faced by O’Toole, Sweeney and Beirne. Jurors found the three men guilty by a majority of 11 to one on the 14 other charges of which they were each convicted.

David Lawlor (43), of Bailis Downs, Navan, Co Meath, was found not guilty of the 17 charges he faced.

He was found not guilty of false imprisonment of and assault causing harm to Ian Gordon, Mark Rissen, John Graham, and Gary McCourtney at Falsk, Strokestown on the same date aggravated burglary and four counts of arson.

He was further acquitted of criminal damage to the door of a house, violent disorder, robbery of a wristwatch from John Graham and, finally, causing unnecessary suffering to an animal by causing or permitting an animal to be struck on the head.

The four defendants had pleaded not guilty to all counts.

There was silence in court while the verdicts were read out.

Judge Martina Baxter thanked the jury for the attention and time they had given to this case and told jurors she would excuse them from jury service for a period of 15 years as a token of appreciation.

She told Lawlor that he was free to go as he had been discharged from the indictment. He and his supporters left the courtroom shortly afterwards.

Judge Baxter ruled against defence applications made on behalf of

Sweeney and Beirne for a continuation of their bail as she said the convicted men had lost the presumption of innocence. O’Toole has been in custody since last Tuesday when a bench warrant for his arrest was executed at his home.

Fired

He had failed to come to court the previous Friday on the day he was due to give a closing speech in his defence, having fired his legal team the previous week.

O’Toole repeatedly told Judge Baxter he did not recognise the court, used her first name and called her “a corporate banker”.

In the absence of the jury, he said there were “people from outside this country on the jury” and “with all due respect to them do they understand what a sovereign man is”. Judge Baxter said she believed he was deliberately obstructing the trial process.

Judge Baxter remanded Sweeney, Beirne and O’Toole into custody to appear again before the court for a sentence hearing on June 30.

Opening the prosecution case last February, Tony McGillicuddy SC told the jury the four defendants stood accused of taking part in brutal violence designed to terrorise the men working there.

The trial heard in 2018 that High Court proceedings relating to a small farm holding in Falsk resulted in a repossession order for the house.

KBC Bank initiated legal proceedings for possession of the property in 2009 and the High Court granted an order for possession in 2012.

The owner of the property, Anthony McGann lived there with his brother and on December 11, 2018 they were removed by security men.