By Gordon Deegan

A judge has convicted a south Galway farmer of assaulting Junior Government Minister, Anne Rabbitte, by throwing a sealed bag of cow dung towards her at a public meeting.

At at Ennis District Court today, (Wednesday, October 2) Judge Alec Gabbett found Joseph Baldwin guilty of the assault of Minister Rabbitte at a public meeting in Gort on January 4, 2023 and causing a breach of the peace at the same meeting.

Baldwin (39) of Ballyaneen, Gort had denied assaulting Minister Rabbitte TD, on January 4, 2023 at the public meeting concerning a planned biogas plant at O’Sullivan’s hotel in Gort.

However, Judge Gabbett said that he was “satisfied that Minister Rabbitte was assaulted on the night in question”. 

He said: “The assault is very clearly set out on CCTV which is the best evidence before the court and shows the full nature of what occurred including the injured party’s reaction and thus apprehension.”

The judge also stated that Joseph Baldwin “did breach the peace by his actions and did act in a threatening, abusive and insulting manner”.

Galway farmer

At Ennis District Court today Judge Gabbett said that he “must convict” the Galway farmer, Joseph Baldwin, of the assault and the public order offences.

Judge Gabbett had earlier in the day ruled that Baldwin had a case to answer when rejecting his solicitor’s – Daragh Hassett – application that he dismiss the charge made against his client after the conclusion of the State’s case at a one day hearing last month.

In evidence last month, Minister Rabbitte wept in the witness box as she recalled the incident.

She said that before Mr Baldwin threw the bag towards her he said to her “‘I am not forgetting about you, there is one for you Rabbitte’ and then he flung a bag as well.

After the bag fell on the ground beside her, Minister Rabbitte said: “I didn’t know if the two legs were going to go from under me.”

“Someone picked it up and said that it was a bag of shit.”

Minister Rabbitte said: “I wanted to scream my head off because no one said that what was happening was wrong.”

Minister Rabbitte said that she distracted herself at the meeting by taking out her phone and sending out a tweet “I can’t believe a bag of sh1t has been thrown at me”.

Ziplock bag

As part of the State case, the ziplock bag that contained the remains of the cow dung had been shown to court.

In evidence on Wednesday afternoon, Baldwin entered the witness box in his own defence.

The farmer told the court that he only lived 500 metres from the planned biogas plant “and it will really affect me where I am”.

Mr Baldwin said that he was “fed up” and “had enough’”.

He recounted how he went to his farm-yard before the public meeting to get the cow dung.

He said: “I went down to the yard and I had a penknife with me. I didn’t scrape it off the ground but took it off the bar of a gate and put it into the bags and sealed the bags.”

Baldwin said that Minister Rabbitte and Fine Gael TD, Ciarán Cannon, who attended the meeting had voted in 2021 for a Climate Action Plan and part of that was rolling out 200 biogas plants across the country.

Baldwin said that after ‘tossing’ one bag forward towards Deputy Cannon he turned and ‘tossed’ the other towards Minister Rabbitte.

He said that he “had no intention of hitting them”.

He said that his original idea was to leave the bags at the top table at the meeting but there was no top table.

“I did not intend to hurt anyone…I was fed up of looking at so many problems in the area and no help from the TDs at all, at all,” Baldwin said.

He added that “it was all over the media that I was being accused of assault”.

Baldwin said that video footage of the night “would clearly show that I wasn’t there to cause trouble “.

He told the court that the bag did not hit Minister Rabbitte and the two bags were sealed and light.

But State barrister Geri Silke said to Baldwin: “You took the law into your own hands and you came prepared with two bags and threw them at two public representatives and you felt that was warranted?” 

The State barrister asked Baldwin: “Is it the case that every TD that doesn’t do what you want should have a bag of manure thrown at them?”

Baldwin said that government minister, Eamon Ryan, once tipped his rubbish in the Dail and another politician brought a glass of dirty water in the Dail 

He said: “My point was that if ye want to bring shit into the town I was going to put it in front of them.”

When asked by the State barrister if he saw anything wrong in what he had done Baldwin replied: “If I thought that Ann Rabbitte was going to go up on Twitter within a minute of it happening and it was going to create such a media circus and have an effect on my work and on my family I wouldn’t have done it.”

Asked why he didn’t write a letter to highlight his concerns about the plant, Baldwin said: “Letters don’t seem to work anymore.”

The counsel for the state also told Baldwin that he never thought of the “upset you caused to Ms Rabbitte” and he replied: ”there was no upset caused to anyone in that hall.” 

Sentencing

Judge Gabbett has adjourned sentencing to December 18 to allow the preparation of a Probation Report on Baldwin.

Judge Gabbett said that it was apparent that Baldwin had a number of stressors in his life at the time of the incident.

Baldwin’s solicitor also said the Galway farmer had lost his job but has recently got back into work.

Speaking after the conclusion of the case, Minister Rabbitte said “a line was crossed” the night the south Galway farmer threw a sealed bag of cow dung towards her at a public meeting.

Minister Rabbitte said: “Being a politician, one expects the rough and tumble of debate at all times, and what we have seen today is that the line was crossed (that night) and the judge acknowledged that the line was crossed and I am glad that this has been brought to a conclusion and this is the end of it as far as I am concerned.”