Enoch Burke’s father jailed for two months for courtroom assault on female garda

The father of jailed teacher Enoch Burke has been imprisoned for two months for attacking a female garda in the Court of Appeal (CoA) after rejecting the chance of a suspended sentence on Tuesday.

However, his daughter Ammi was cleared of obstructing another male garda during the same incident.

Sean Burke, who is in his 60s, denied assaulting Garda Victoria Fisher in the Four Courts on March 7th last year, when his wife Martina was escorted from a hearing for shouting at judges.

Garda Fisher was grabbed, knocked down and hit a radiator, resulting in bruising.

Even though he had been spared a criminal record, Burke unsuccessfully attempted to quash the guilty verdict delivered in May in the District Court, which gave him the Probation of Offenders Act.

However, following a three-day District Court Appeals hearing, Judge Ronan Munro convicted him on Tuesday.

He referred to the uncontested evidence that Burke shouted at gardaí to leave his wife alone, and he did not accept that knocking the garda down was accidental. Judge Munro held that there was an intentional application of force by Sean Burke.

The offence carries a maximum six-month sentence and €1,500 fine.

Judge Munro imposed a two-month sentence; however, noting Burke's lack of prior convictions, he said he would suspend it on condition the accused keep the peace and be of good behaviour for one year.

However, Sean Burke, who said he felt demeaned during the hearing, refused to sign the peace bond at which the judge ordered that he would serve the sentence.

Burke, who had represented himself and did not accept the verdict, shook hands with and hugged his son, Dr Isaac Burke, before being led into custody.

In his ruling, Judge Munro rejected arguments that the gardaí dealing with the courtroom "chaos" had no legal authority to remove them.

He said the officers had a duty to restore order following several interruptions by members of the Burke family of the CoA judges, who rose twice after shouts that they were "bowing before the altar of transgenderism".

Judge Munro said: "Members of the public, including visiting schoolchildren, were forced to witness those scenes in a court of law, which I regard as offensive scenes".

Ammi Burke (33) won her appeal. A qualified solicitor, she had earlier been fined €400 and convicted of obstructing a garda by putting her hand on him for a few seconds as he helped arrest her brother Simeon Burke (25), who was brought "flailing" from the CoA courtroom.

On Tuesday, she succeeded in her appeal because Judge Munro had a reasonable doubt that she had directly obstructed the arrest of her brother Simeon, given the fast-moving situation.

After being cleared, Ammi Burke had to be escorted from the remainder of the proceedings because she interrupted Judge Munro as he went on to deliver his decision in her father's case.

The arrests happened when Enoch Burke was involved in a legal dispute before the CoA over transgenderism and his sacking by Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath.

Judge Munro heard that the CoA had delivered a ruling telling Enoch Burke that the action taken by the school against him was not about transgenderism. He noted from the audio recording of the hearing that the court rose twice, and the three CoA judges left the bench following interruptions or shouting from the Burkes, of Cloonsunna, Castlebar, Co Mayo.

Mr Justice George Birmingham had warned them to be quiet, or they would be removed. He returned and said if there were further disruptions, the judgment would be delivered electronically instead.

Judge Munro noted that Mr Justice Birmingham warned them eight to 10 times, and when the judges left the second time, the Burkes stayed in the court.

Gardai removed Ammi Burke to calm her down, and then Simeon, who was holding onto benches, before bringing their mother, Martina Burke, out. A bench was knocked over.

Sean and Ammi Burke argued that they should not have been charged because there was no order or legal power to remove them from the court, which the prosecution disputed.

Ammi Burke put her hand on a male garda's arm for a few seconds while he was carrying Simeon out to the front of the building, and she contended that she did not mount to wilful obstruction.

The court heard gardai were being called a disgrace and told to go Tallaght, and one officer was told, "You are not in China now" by members of the Burke group.

In evidence, Sean Burke said he had respect for gardai and the courts, but he was shocked at a remark made by the CoA judge that Enoch had been talking in "soundbites" or that the proceedings were not about transgenderism.

He said his family "raised an objection, we spoke and objected to this," adding that he had affirmed the objection.

Mr Burke asserted that it was not a normal situation and "the country knows, the world knows it is about transgenderism".

He said he was concerned when his wife was removed from the courtroom and went after her, but it was in a narrow, congested aisle, and he did not see Garda Fisher due to the height disparity between them.

Garda Fisher had told the court that he put his hand on her and knocked her down against a radiator, causing bruising and pain.

Other gardaí also told Judge Munro they witnessed Mr Burke knocking her down.

Mr Burke said he never saw her and had no recollection of her being there. He referred to the CCTV evidence emerging from the courtroom seconds after him.

He rejected the assault allegation outright and said that he would not consciously treat a garda like that, and if it happened, it was "completely accidental and unknown to me", and he felt it was wrong that the prosecution had been brought against him.

Emer Ni Chuagain BL, prosecuting, had put it to him that he remembered other things and was "selective", which he disputed.

Simeon Burke, now a qualified barrister, had been prosecuted for a Public Order Act offence for using threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour in the court. He was initially convicted in the District Court but had the verdict overturned on appeal earlier this year.