Gardaí want rioters to face 10-year sentences

UP TO 100 people face a possible 10-year prison sentence if convicted on charges in relation to the Dublin riots last February.

Gardaí are pushing for defendants to be tried on indictment in the Circuit Court for the offence of ‘riot’, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Detectives have so far charged 42 people in connection with the rioting on February 25 in Dublin, which developed from a protest to the Love Ulster rally, and intend to charge up to 100 people in all.

Senior officers in Dublin decided to push for the maximum number of prosecutions, with the most serious offence possible, in response to the scale of the lawlessness that took place.

A garda involved in the investigation said: “People might have thought it would not be followed up, but we’re following it up and we are going after each and every one of them. Every one we’ve identified, we’ll be hauling in.”

Two more people, aged 19 and 20, were arrested last Saturday in connection with the riots, bringing the total number of people arrested so far to more than 80.

“We’ll be bringing in another 20-30 people. We’ll probably end up charging the guts of 100 people,” said the garda.

Senior officers are recommending to the Director of Public Prosecution that they be charged with the offence of riot in the Circuit Court.

“The files we’re sending to the DPP are all connected with riot. That’s a fairly serious offence, with a possible sentence of 10 years,” explained the garda.

Senior garda bosses set up a major investigation after the rioting. An estimated 90-100 gardaí were initially assigned to the probe, taking in statements from witnesses, conducting local enquiries and examining CCTV footage.

“It’s a massive police operation, with a significant budget,” said the garda. “Logistically it’s huge. It’s bigger than a couple of murder investigations.”

Around 50 gardaí are working on the investigation and officers feel it was “pure luck” no one was seriously injured or killed in the riot.

The garda rejected that republicans were involved in orchestrating the violence.

“To a very minor degree republicans were involved. What you really had was every sort of lug in the city that day deciding to have a go,” added the garda.