Paddy Baxter appeared in the Dublin district court this morning (Friday Oct 19th) charged with two public order offences arising from the Critical Mass/Street Football demonstration in O'Connell Street in Dublin, which took place on September 22nd (European Car Free Day).

Paddy's solicitor was quite shocked to learn that the Gardai Siochana (Irish Police) have five Garda witnesses who are willing to testify against Paddy. Paddy pleaded not guilty to the offences, and a trial date was set for March 19th 2002. His solicitor had never heard of five Garda being called as witnesses for public order offences before, so obviously they are going to try and pursue this one as much as possible to secure a conviction.

Paddy will be fighting the charges on constitutional grounds, so there is a chance that the case might be brought to the high court on appeal if he is convicted.

In the coming months Paddy will be appealing for witnesses and photographic + video evidence of the day in question. Any evidence at all will be considered useful. He will need to show the court various examples of the happy atmosphere of the day in question, and the Garda heavy handed approach they took to the cyclists. If you have any evidence at all or were at the protest, please get in touch.

We will also try and organise a fundraiser for legal costs at some stage in the coming months.

regards