Ramelton man fails in bid to overturn conviction for Roscommon 'mob' attack

Three men, including one from Ramelton, jailed for their part in a vigilante "mob" attack on security personnel guarding a repossessed farmhouse in Roscommon committed “the most barbaric violations of human rights”, the Court of Appeal has ruled in upholding their convictions.

“Though dressed up as public action in redress of injustice, eight security men, simply doing their job for modest wages, were targeted by a vicious mob and made submit to the lowest of attacks on their irreducible entitlement to human dignity,” said Mr Justice Peter Charleton, rejecting appeals by Martin O'Toole (60), PJ Sweeney (59), and Paul Beirne (58).

O'Toole, of Stripe, Irishtown, Claremorris Co Mayo; Sweeney, of High Cairn, Ramelton, Co Donegal; and Beirne, of Croghan, Boyle, Co Roscommon, were each sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty in June of last year of 15 charges in relation to the incident, including aggravated burglary, violent disorder and criminal damage to a door of the house.

They were also found guilty of false imprisonment of and assault causing harm to Ian Gordon, Mark Rissen, John Graham, and Gary McCourtney.

They were further convicted of three counts of arson in relation to three vans and to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal by causing or permitting an animal to be struck on the head.

Their trial heard that a group of armed men smashed their way into a house at a recently repossessed rural property at Falsk, just outside Strokestown, Co Roscommon at around 5am on December 16, 2018.

These men were armed with weapons including a baseball bat, a meat cleaver, a hurley, a nail-studded stick and a chainsaw as they attacked the security men who were guarding the property.

The security men were beaten and forced to the ground, had their shoes removed and their hands tied with cable ties. The windows and doors of the house were smashed, the men’s vans were set on fire and a Belgian Shepherd dog was beaten unconscious and later had to be put down.

One of the security men said he had a gun put to his head and was ordered to crawl on the ground and eat dog faeces. Another told the trial that he was tied up, had his legs cut with a meat cleaver and was doused in petrol during the attack.

Appealing their convictions, barristers for the three appellants argued that certain evidence relating to video footage should not have been admissible during their trial, while it was also submitted that it was not possible to establish their guilt as there were 30 to 40 people involved in the incident.

Counsel for Sweeney, Michael Bowman SC said that he was challenging the admissibility of video footage taken from a body cam worn by one of the security staff, as no records had been maintained about its movement within garda custody.

Mr Bowman also queried the maintenance of records relating to the identification of his client, while counsel for Beirne, Séamus Clarke SC submitted that there had been an unlawful two-hour detention of the appellant at his home, with an armed response unit guarding the door.

Paul Flannery SC, for O’Toole, made the same submissions as Mr Bowman and Mr Clarke.

In delivering the Court of Appeal’s judgement today, Mr Justice Charleton said that the men’s trial, which ought to have been about whether the prosecution had adduced sufficient evidence to convict, was turned into an irrelevant discussion about police procedures, “hunting the chimera of unrighteousness” where no legal basis enabled this exercise.

Mr Justice Charleton said that since 2008, Ireland had been characterised by “the coming home of debts voluntarily undertaken”, and that the background to the “horrific events” in Roscommon that day was a legal proceeding in the High Court concerning the borrowing of large amounts of money and the debtor not paying.

Concerning the issue of common design, Mr Justice Charleton said that each of the men involved in these events witnessed the dousing in petrol of a security guard, the brandishing of a shotgun, the vicious assaults and “the cruel purposeless” of what happened.

“If a can of petrol is poured over a trussed-up man and the others go along with that, it can be inferred that this is part of the explicit or silent plan,” he said, adding that if six people enter a room where others are made to cower for their lives beneath a revving chainsaw, everyone involved is just as much in support of the one wielding “that instrument of dismemberment”.

Mr Justice Charleton said that barristers for the appellants had argued that the trial should have taken place in Roscommon, but he said this would have been the worst place to attempt to have a trial as there were “30 participants in the cruelty”, so there would have been relatives of the accused in the area or people remaining silent out of fear.

The judge said that video footage taken from the body cam worn by one of the security guards was real evidence, as video footage that shows the commission of a crime during a trial is not prejudicial. He added that there was no basis for ruling out this evidence.

Concerning search warrants that were issued by the District Court in the case, Mr Justice Charleton said that a reasonable suspicion is one grounded in fact, adding that the gardaí had reasonable suspicion to search the premises in this case, so there was no basis for excluding the results of the searches carried out.

Mr Justice Charleton said that it had been argued that the appellants had been falsely imprisoned when the gardaí visited their homes, as they had no right to leave. However, he said it was reasonable for the gardaí to want a householder to be present and stay in one location so as not to impede the search, and there was no unlawful deprivation of liberty until their formal arrest.

Saying that the court had no purpose in criticising any of those involved in a trial process concerning “a series of the most barbaric violations of human rights”, Mr Justice Charleton said that the court did, however, feel the need to address “the culture of delay, vacillation, and unnecessary applications”, which had turned the trial into “a generalised tribunal of enquiry into matters utterly irrelevant”.

In summary, Mr Justice Charleton said that the court was dismissing the appeals and affirming all the convictions.

The men's trial heard that in late 2018, High Court proceedings relating to a small traditional farm holding in Falsk, Co Roscommon, resulted in a repossession order for the house and 12 hectares. KBC Bank had 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, Michael Anthony McGann, lived there with his adult autistic brother and on December 11, 2018 they were forcibly removed by private security personnel engaged on behalf of the bank. Video footage showing this eviction was the subject of some publicity, both local and further afield, and was a source of distress for the McGanns and the wider community.

In the days that followed, an interview was recorded at the farmhouse in which it was stated that the eviction was carried out by Northern Irish “mercenaries” and which showed security men still at the residence circulated on social media.

Danny Noone told the jury that he was an authorised officer of KBC Bank and that in 2009, the bank began legal proceedings against Michael McGann, who was the holder of a mortgage for the property at Falsk.

He said that between 2009 and 2012 “we would have done our best to engage with the borrowers to see if there was a resolution possible”.

Mr Noone said that after the order was granted, the bank continued to engage with the borrower. He said there was a lot of engagement with Mr McGann and that is why it took so long for the possession order to be executed. He told the jury that “the last thing anybody wants to do is go ahead with a forced repossession”.

Mr Noone said to execute a possession order, a separate execution order needs to be issued by the court and that this expires after 12 months. He agreed that two execution orders were issued and lapsed before the third one issued in 2018 was then used as the basis for the eviction in December 2018.

He told the court that the security for the KBC mortgage included around 30 acres of land but that public records indicated that Mr McGann owned a total of around 170 acres in addition to this land, and “perhaps one or two other residential properties”.

On the morning of the attack a convoy, which included a cattle truck driven by Beirne, gathered at nearby Elfin town in Roscommon before going to Falsk.

Four security guards described to the jury how they were forced to the ground, had their shoes removed and their hands tied with cable ties and were seriously assaulted with baseball bats, sticks, a meat cleaver and other weapons. Four other men managed to escape, with three of them jumping into the freezing waters of a nearby river to escape.

Ian Gordon said he had a gun put to his head and was ordered to crawl on the ground and eat dog faeces. His security guard dog Quinn had lost control of his bowel moments earlier after men had beaten it repeatedly over the head with a bat.

The dog was beaten unconscious and later had to be put down by a vet attending at the scene.

Under cross-examination, Mr Gordon confirmed with defence counsel that he had previously served with the British Army in the Ulster Defence Regiment and in the Royal Irish Regiment. He said that after leaving the army, he worked as an enforcement officer for the courts, serving summonses and warrants.

He said he later went into security work and, in 2013, his company GS Agencies Ltd was registered.

Mr Gordon accepted that he and his security staff were working in security in this jurisdiction in circumstances where the company did not have a licence.

He said he didn't know a company licence was required and said his staff had individual security licences. He said the Private Security Authority later prosecuted GS Agencies for operating without a company licence and he entered a guilty plea.