A Derry councillor was today acquitted of disorderly behaviour and obstructing police.
Gary Donnelly, 45, of Iniscarn Road, who is an independent councillor with Derry City and Strabane District Council, appeared before Derry Magistrates Court where he contested the charges against him.
The alleged offences were said to have taken place at Ballymagowan Gardens on October 16, 2015.
Cllr Donnelly appeared alongside another Derry man, 26-year-old Christopher Boast, of Gelvin Grange, who was charged and found guilty of assault on police and disorderly behaviour during the same incident.
The defence solicitors offered no submissions for either defendant, save to say that they both contested the charges.
District Judge Barney McElholm said that the evidence against Boast was against ‘the background of a serious public order situation’.
He said that stones and other objects were being thrown at police and the crowd were shouting and chanting.
Judge McElholm then said that police reported that Boast struck an officer twice on the forearm as he attempted to guide the crowd from surging onto the road, causing the crowd to shout and jeer.
Boast was also said to have been verbally abusive to police officers, walking down the street and shouting to police: ‘Chasing the wains, you paedophile, get out of our estate, you aren’t welcome’ and offering a police officer a confrontation by saying, ‘You and me, one on one’.
Judge McElholm said that Donnelly was also on the scene and that police had asked him to assist them in controlling the crowd and getting them back onto the footpath, to which Cllr Donnelly reportedly told them to ‘f*** off’.
Another officer said he had asked Donnelly to move and he replied, ‘F*** off, I’m not moving’.
District Judge McElholm said: “This was against the background of a serious public disorder situation and police were trying to get people off the road to allow the free flow of vehicles. A large crowd had gathered, who appeared to be not under anyone’s control and were doing what they liked, shouting, chanting and jeering.
“Mr Boast was accused of joining in on that by accusing the police of being paedophiles and shouting and trying to engage police in some physical confrontation and strikes a police officer twice.”
On this basis, Judge McElholm convicted Boast of the offences of disorderly behaviour and assault on police.
He said that Cllr Donnelly was ‘optimistically approached by police with a view to using his good offices to control this unruly crowd and the answer is that Mr Donnelly told them to f*** off’.
He added: “Frankly, the idea that they were going to get the crowd to desist what they were doing by asking for Mr Donnelly’s help…I think optimistic is an understatement.
“We know he is an elected representative but he was elected on a certain mandate and has made it clear what his stand was and he’s not one for assisting police like this.”
Judge McElholm said that the ‘cacophonous’ noise of the crowd made it difficult for any communication or reasoning without raising your voice and ‘considering with whose whom police were involved, it was impossible to reason’.
He continued: “As for Mr Donnelly telling police to f*** off, in such circumstances, I wouldn’t’ have expected anything else.
“In the context of a large crowd jeering and chanting, anyone trying to communicate would have to shout and reply in the vernacular at a level where one can make themselves heard.”
As for the obstruction of a police officer who had allegedly asked Cllr Donnelly to move on, Judge McElholm noted that the report came from another officer but the officer concerned in purportedly asking had not mentioned this.
Both charges were dismissed against Cllr Donnelly in light of this evidence.
Steven Mooney, defence counsel for Boast, said that he had a previous record having served a ‘lengthy sentence’ in 2011 and having committed an offence in custody for which he received a suspended sentence in 2012.
Mr Mooney added that it had been five years since Boast’s last offence.
Judge McElholm noted that the assault to police by striking an officer’s forearm twice caused no injury and was did not cross the custody threshold.
Boast was fined a total of £500 and ordered to pay an additional £25 offenders levy.
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