Dutton guilty of possession of weapon

A Clondalkin man has been acquitted of pointing a loaded gun at gardaí while resisting arrest but was found guilty of possessing the weapon in suspicious circumstances.

Ian Dutton (aged 46) of Greenfort Lawns, Clondalkin, has been found guilty of possessing a Glock semi-automatic pistol and ammunition in suspicious circumstances; possession of a firearm and ammunition without a certificate at Greenfort Crescent on October 4, 2005 and obstructing a garda who attempted to finger print him.

The jury found him not guilty of producing a firearm for the purpose of resisting arrest after nearly seven hours deliberating over two days.

Dutton had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to all of the charges. It was day nine of the trial.

Mr Dutton’s wife revealed she heard a garda repeat “It worked, we’ve got him” over the phone the night her husband allegedly pointed a loaded gun at other officers while resisting arrest.

Siobhan Dutton said she did not know what the “excited and hyper” garda had meant when asked under cross-examination if she had spoken to her husband about the conversation given it’s his case that gardaí “stitched him up”.

She said she believed the garda had forgotten she was within earshot while under arrest in a detective car because she overheard another garda in a group of gardaí roaring “you’re dead” at her husband outside the Greensfort Terrace house.

She denied her husband took a gun from his belt when he got out of the car and pointed it at gardaí.

Garda David Kavangh told Mr Costelloe that as he was taking part in a drugs search at the Greenfort Crescent about mid night, he heard a car approaching at speed. He said a man got out of the passenger seat and produced a gun from the front of his jeans waistband.

Gda Kavangh said he shouted “armed gardaí” and the man put the gun back in his trousers and ran.

Detective Garda Michael Ormonde said he arrested the man who gave his name as “Ian Dutton” after being caught trying to get over a gate. He said he explained to the man that he was being arrested for unlawful possession of a gun and Mr Dutton replied: “What gun?”

Det Gda Ormonde said he noticed that Mr Dutton’s hand was bleeding. Mr Dutton said he slashed his hand on the spikes of a gate he tried to jump over to escape “loads of fellas in hoodies”, who sprung up from gardens surrounding the flat.

Det Gda Ormonde said at the first attempt to take Mr Dutton’s fingerprints he told them: “Your not getting f**king anything off me.” He said Mr Dutton pulled down his sleeves and clenched his fists when gardaí physically tried to get his fingerprints.

Mr Dutton told Mr Phelan that he could not recall a sergeant present in the cell area to tell him that refusing to co-operate was a separate offence and that he resisted giving fingerprints in custody because he feared gardaí would force his hand onto a gun he saw beside the ink plate.

Mr Costelloe put it to him that the story of the gun beside the ink plate it was a “crock of nonsense” as it was “never once suggested” to any of the prosecution witnesses in the trial.

A forensic scientist told Mr Phelan that he found no blood on the gun produced in court but found splatters and smears on clothing Mr Dutton had been wearing on arrest.

Dr Duncan Woods agreed under cross-examination that there was nothing in his support to contradict a person with an injured left hand holding the gun in the other hand and leaving no blood on the weapon.

Detective Sergeant Kevin Brooks, of the ballistics section at garda headquarters, said the gun’s serial number had been erased and black painted over the area. He said without the serial number the gun could not be traced.

He said the gun was designed for military police use, as was the ammunition.

Det Sgt Brooks told Mr Phelan that the Glock pistol was a favourite of those involved in “shooting incidents” in this country and that there were 30 out of 67 shootings between 2008 and 2009 involving a Glock pistol.

Earlier, Dutton agreed under cross-examination that he believed he was “stitched up” by gardaí who lured him to his son’s flat, made up a “cock-and-bull” story about him having a gun and subsequently produced the weapon in court.

He revealed he has made 30 complaints to the Garda Complaints Board and the Garda Ombudsman Commission since 1987 about gardaí allegedly harassing him and his family.

He said the “harassment” had “spiralled out of control” since a complaint in the 1990s about an officer allegedly holding a gun to his young child’s head.

He told Mr John Phelan SC, defending, that he’s had to install a camera at his home “to prove what’s going on with the police”.

Judge Frank O’Donnell thanked the six men and six women of the jury for their “exceptional care” in the trial, remanded Dutton in custody and put the matter back for sentencing later.