A Dublin Councillor has been cleared of failing to comply with a Garda direction to leave the scene of a water charge protest last April.

On April 20th last, a GMC-SIERRA crew claim protestors threatened them and prevented them from installing a water metre at Parnell Road in Crumlin. Sergeant David Lynch said there were only six or seven people there when he arrived, but the crowd soon grew to around 40. He claims they were forced to carry out arrests after they failed to comply with his direction to leave the area.

Independent TD and Right2Change campaigner Joan Collins was among the 11 people who went on trial yesterday. That number was reduced by one today when the case against Cllr Patrick Dunne of St. GerardÂ’s Road, Greenhills in Dublin was dismissed. Gardai accepted he was noÂ’t behaving in a way that would have brought him under the direction to move away peacefully.

The maximum penalty for failing to comply with the direction of a Garda is a fine or six months in prison.
Two of the remaining ten accused are also facing an additional charge of obstructing Gardai.

Frank Greaney reports: