A fire brigade officer has told the Roscommon eviction trial that he prevented security guards re-entering a repossessed house after an attack by a large group of men.
The property at Falsk, outside Strokestown, was repossessed on December 11th, 2018 and security men were left to guard the farm house and lands. It is the State's case that five days later, at around 5am on December 16th, 2018, a group of approximately 30 armed men, some wearing balaclavas, arrived at the rural property and attacked four of the security guards present.
Patrick Sweeney (44) of High Cairn, Ramelton, Co Donegal, Martin O'Toole (58) of Stripe, Irishtown, Claremorris, Co Mayo, Paul Beirne (56) of Croghan, Boyle, Co Roscommon and David Lawlor (43) of Bailis Downs, Navan, Co. Meath have pleaded not guilty to 17 charges each at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Each man is separately charged with false imprisonment of and assault causing harm to four security personnel at Falsk on December 16th, 2018. Each man is also charged with aggravated burglary, as well as four charges of arson in relation to a car and three vans which were allegedly set alight.
The four men are also each charged with criminal damage to a door of a house, violent disorder, robbery of a wristwatch from security guard John Graham and, finally, causing unnecessary suffering to an animal by causing or permitting an animal to be struck on the head.
Fire engine dispatched
On day 13 of the trial, Peter Carney, station officer at the fire station in Elfin, Co Roscommon, told the jury that he received notice of a situation at Falsk and that a fire engine was dispatched within minutes.
He said that on the route to Falsk, they found hay bales on the road. He said that members of Strokestown fire brigade were ahead in the road and were moving the bales from the road and both fire trucks continued on to the property.
He said that all the vehicles at the property were on fire. He said he saw three or four badly injured security men standing outside the house and “they were all shocked.”
He told Seán Rafter BL, defending Mr O'Toole, that after carrying out a risk assessment and ensuring everyone was out of the house, officers then cordoned off the house.
“I believe we did it once we had everyone out of the danger zone,” he said.
He agreed with counsel that this was to keep the site safe and to control who went in or out. He said that this was supervised so that entry in to the site was controlled.
He said that he noticed other men arriving at the property after the cordon had gone up. Asked if the cordon was “broken at any point” he said “not to my knowledge”.
Alerted to incident
Brendan Foy, station officer at Strokestown fire station, said he got a beeper alert at around 5:30am about an incident at Falsk. He said that he made inquiries that all the security men were accounted for and was happy they were.
He said some of the security men wanted to get back into the house, but “we wouldn't let them in.” He agreed that was because of concerns for their safety and the fact that it was a crime scene.
He told Mr Rafter that it was standard procedure to erect a tape around the scene and that one fireman was assigned to watch the tape.
Asked why it was important to stop people going back into the scene he said it was to stop “tampering with evidence”. He said security guards did ask to go back into the house and said they had stuff to collect inside the house.
He said he didn't permit that. The jury has previously heard evidence from a security guard Michael Kane who said when he had run from the property after the attack began and only returned after he saw the lights of emergency vehicles.
Mr Kane had testified that he then went back into the house to look for “the bodies of his colleagues” and while in the house he retrieved a number of body-cams scattered around the living room.
The trial continues before Judge Martina Baxter and a jury.
