Enoch Burke's father jailed for attacking garda during court hearing
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The father of jailed teacher Enoch Burke has been imprisoned for two months for attacking a female garda in the Court of Appeal 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 7 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 knocking the garda down was accidental. Judge Munro held 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, Isaac Burke, before being led into custody.
In his ruling, Judge Munro rejected arguments that 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 Court of Appeal judges, who rose twice after shouts 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 Court of Appeal courtroom.
On Tuesday, she succeeded in her appeal because Judge Munro had a reasonable doubt 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 Court of Appeal over his sacking by Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath.