Guilty: Farmer who flung 'bag of dung' at Minister of State is convicted of assault

A judge has convicted a farmer of assaulting Minister of State Anne Rabbitte when throwing a sealed bag of cow dung towards her at a public meeting.

At Ennis District Court, Judge Alec Gabbett found Joseph Baldwin guilty of the assault of Minister Rabbitte at a public meeting in Gort, County Galway on January 4, 2023.

He also found Mr Baldwin guilty of causing a breach of the peace at the same meeting.

Speaking to reporters outside Ennis courthouse after the conclusion of the case, Ms 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.”

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Judge Gabbett has adjourned sentencing of Mr Baldwin to December to allow him engage with Probation Services to enable the completion of a report 

In the case, Mr Baldwin, aged 39, of Ballyaneen, Gort had denied assaulting Anne Rabbitte on January 4 2023 at the public meeting at O’Sullivan’s hotel in Gort, concerning a planned biogas plant, contrary to Section 2 of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.

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.”

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

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

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

On going to the local garda station to have what occurred ‘noted’, the minister of state said: “It is tough we do what we do but I love it and it is a privilege and I apologise judge to be bawlin’ my way through it, but someone had to speak up.”

In a prepared statement to gardai, read out in court, Mr Baldwin said that he went to the meeting “with no intention to harm anyone”.”

Mr Baldwin - represented by solicitor, Daragh Hassett in the case -  said the first bag (of dung) fell two to three feet from Deputy Ciaran Cannon and that he threw the second bag in the direction of Ms Rabbitte and that “it brushed off someone else and fell on the floor near her”.

Mr Baldwin said that earlier that day “I went down to the farmyard and put dry cow dung into ziplock bags. There was no smell or odour off the bags and I made sure that they were secure. They were very light - like a featherweight. I thought all the TDs and councillors would be at the top table where I could leave the bags in front of them.”

On why he decided to bring the bags, he said: ”On the evening in question I said to myself, ‘I have had enough’, something had to be done for them to listen and show them that it was unacceptable for the community to be treated like this.”

He said: “I went to that meeting with no intention to harm anyone." 

“In my own mind, I thought that it might be a way of getting through to two Government TDs that they were clearly not helping or listening to the people of our own community.”

He said: “I am not apologising because I believe that all I was doing was making the views of the community known and I didn’t hurt anybody in the process.

I am just a normal, decent person thinking about my community and the people who live in it."