July 2015

Shell has been accused of supplying £25,000 in alcohol to Irish police officers by two suppliers to an Irish gas project.

Desmond Kane and Neil Rooney both claimed in court that they were told by someone from Shell E&P Ireland to buy the alcohol, according to the Irish Journal.

Rooney told Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court that he was asked by senior pipeline engineer Conor Byrne to make the delivery in 2007.

The detailed claims were made in a Mayo court last week.

TWO FORMER SUPPLIERS to the Corrib gas project told a jury they supplied £25,000-worth of alcohol to gardaí in 2007 on behalf of Shell E&P Ireland.

The allegations were made by Desmond Kane and Neil Rooney, co-owners of OSSL, which had previously supplied personal protective equipment for the Corrib gas project in north Mayo.

Both claimed that a person from Shell E&P Ireland asked them to buy alcohol in Northern Ireland and store it in a container at the back of their premises in Bangor Erris.

The two men’s claims were made at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court last Thursday during the trial of Gerry Bourke and Liam Heffernan, who were charged with violent disorder following a protest in a shell compound in Aughoose, Pollathomas.

Mr Bourke and Mr Heffernan were later found not guilty by the jury.

Under oath, Mr Neil Rooney claimed that the first delivery of alcohol to Belmullet Garda Station was made in 2005, and that in 2007, he was asked by Conor Byrne, a senior pipeline engineer with Shell, to make a large delivery.

https://video-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xtf1/v/t42.1790-2/11730232_5088...

Two protesters have been cleared of criminal damage resulting from a protest at a Shell compound in north Mayo but still face charges of violent disorder.