Public looking at images of 99 'persons of interest' connected to Dublin riots crashes Garda website

The 99 individuals are separate, and in addition to, the 57 people already arrested in relation to the looting and rioting, which saw three Dublin buses and one Luas destroyed by fire, 15 garda vehicles and two fire brigade tenders damaged and 66 businesses attacked.

Gardaí are using, for the first time, an online reporting tool on their social media sites to allow members of the public identify or name people wanted in relation to a criminal investigation.

As part of a year-long probe into last November’s Dublin riots, gardaí have uploaded images of 99 people captured on CCTV.

The high-quality stills have been mainly taken from inside stores subject to looting, with other photographs from outside shops or from streets during the disorder.

After the photo gallery was uploaded on to the Garda website on Tuesday morning, it was overwhelmed with people accessing the images and the system crashed for a while.

The 99 individuals are separate, and in addition to, the 57 people already arrested in relation to the looting and rioting, which saw three Dublin buses and one Luas destroyed by fire, 15 garda vehicles and two fire brigade tenders damaged and 66 businesses attacked.

Garda management made the decision to set up an online reporting tool as efforts to identify the 99 people internally did not produce any leads.

This may suggest that some, or many, of the people have not been arrested before and may have no, or limited, criminal history and seized on an opportunity to steal goods.

The people photographed are categorised by gardaí as “persons of interest”, with gardaí stressing some of the people may be able to rule themselves out of investigation.

Within hours, five people were identified and their images removed from the gallery. 

Gardaí are hopeful the photo gallery will spark a response, particularly as most of those in the images are not masked and the quality of the picture in the bulk of them is good.

Most of the people in the photographs are male and there are people from various ethnicities, including white Irish, and a small number appear to be juveniles.

Many of those in the photographs are either carrying runners or shoe boxes, in some cases a number of them.

Gardaí have the full footage before and after the stills that have been uploaded, giving them a better picture of their involvement.

While gardaí have published photographs of people wanted in relation to investigations before, including on RTÉ's Crimecall, they confirmed this is the first time they have created an online tool on their social media sites for people able and willing to provide identifying information about suspects.

They also said the appeal was on a "larger scale" than ever before.

The Garda boss leading the investigation, Chief Superintendent Patrick McMenamin, assured people that anyone providing information would be treated in the “strictest confidence”.

Garda press officer Liam Geraghty said people could provide their emails and names if they wanted to, but gardaí are happy to receive information anonymously, as they do on Garda confidential phone lines.

Chief McMenamin praised the “stellar work” of his investigation team, which, as part of its inquiries, gathered 17,000 hours of CCTV footage, the viewing of which was a “slow and laborious process”.

The investigation has so far resulted in:

• 57 arrests and 53 charges;
• 14 people have been convicted in the District Court for public order offences;
• 11 other people are currently before the District Court;
• One conviction in the higher Circuit Criminal Court, in which a man pleaded guilty in relation to arson (setting a garda car on fire) and violent disorder;
• Four people are before the Circuit Court. 

Chief Supt McMenamin said the rioting on November 23 went on for “a number of hours” and caused “significant reputational damage” for Dublin City.

He said he did not think it affected the reputation of gardaí.

He said the actions of rioters on the night had left “many traumatised” and said 13 gardaí were injured.