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| Josh Dunne Image from Dublin Live |
The man who ended his life was last week acquitted of murdering him. George Bento is now a free man who plans to return to Brazil, the country of which he is a national, his future ahead of him. Josh Dunne is not free to go anywhere. He lies buried In Dardistown Cemetery, a promising career in soccer and so much else denied him.
The jury verdict was unanimous. Given the draconian nature of non-jury courts, it would be churlish to criticise the jury for having delivered a verdict which every single member agreed upon.
The two central characters in this modern Greek Tragedy - performed live on a Dublin street - a minute before they crossed each other’s path had no intention of harming anybody. Each was ineluctably drawn into the drama that would define them, and permanently lock them together in a macabre embrace, by the urge to help a friend in danger.
George Bento, a Deliveroo driver, went to the assistance of a work colleague whose bike was being stolen by a thief on a moped. Deliveroo drivers had been subject to frequent attack, and employees in the trade were understandably fearful as they went about eking out a living on the toxic streets of the capital. Claiming to fear for his safety as he confronted the thief, he produced a lethal weapon. This was before Josh Dunne and his friends had arrived on the scene.
When the teens did turn up, for some reason a number of them rushed into the fracas, but not Josh Dunne. He held the moped. George Bento stabbed one of Josh Dunne’s friends, causing the Ballymun teen to then wade in with his fists. He was a soccer player not a boxer so his fists can hardly be considered lethal. In a five second clash George Bento inflicted two wounds to the chest of Josh Dunne, one of them fatal. In all he stabbed three people during the incident. While the jury found that he had no intent to kill and acted in self defence, George Bento nevertheless made promiscuous use of a lethal weapon.
A Garda source opined that there were no winners on the night. Accurate but limited in that it fails to observe that there was very definitely a loser. Josh Dunne, an unarmed teenager who had never before come to garda attention, lost his life.
When the verdict was delivered, I felt no animus towards George Bento. I did not believe he was guilty of murder and I had no desire to see him spend any more time in prison. It seemed clear that while he killed Josh Dunne his culpability did not meet the threshold for a murder conviction. A life sentence would have been grossly disproportionate to the facts of his immersion in the circumstances on the fateful night.
Yet, Josh Dunne was more innocent than George Bento and it is this that helps make the verdict of the courts so unnerving. It signified that Josh Dunne had been lawfully killed in the course of committing unlawful actions. It is this and not the fact that George Bento is free which amplifies the disquiet of the verdict. Josh Dunne was drawn into an affray much the same way George Bento had been pulled into it. Neither was an instigator, both were thrust into a circumstance where the situational logic pushed each towards protecting a friend. The person George Bento was trying to protect was having his bike stolen by a hood on a moped. The friend Josh Dunne was trying to protect was being stabbed by George Bento.
Unless I am blind, it seems strikingly obvious that the more culpable of the two principal characters was George Bento. Josh Dunne moved to assist a friend with his fists, not a knife. Yet his life was supposedly lawfully taken.
Unless I am blind, it seems strikingly obvious that the more culpable of the two principal characters was George Bento. Josh Dunne moved to assist a friend with his fists, not a knife. Yet his life was supposedly lawfully taken.
Justice has not been served in this case. The Director Of Public Prosecutions must bear a large amount of responsibility for opting to charge George Bento with murder. There was never a snowball’s chance in hell of a conviction being secured on that. The Brazilian set out to murder no one. Yet, Josh Dunne was unlawfully killed, not lawfully killed. The charge should have been one of manslaughter, as suggested by the barrister for George Bento prior to his arraignment. This would have allowed more latitude for the jury to consider a guilty verdict. Such an outcome, given the preponderance of mitigating circumstances, may have meant no jail time for George Bento but it would have set the record straight and exonerated Josh Dunne of culpability for his own death. Now, his sister is left to rue that "we feel Josh has been lost in all of this."
A black kid from a deprived council estate is knifed to death while helping a friend who was being stabbed and the logic flowing from the verdict is that he was somehow killed lawfully. Now his bereaved family is being targeted by hate vendors driven by chauvinism and racism. His grieving sister said:
A black kid from a deprived council estate is knifed to death while helping a friend who was being stabbed and the logic flowing from the verdict is that he was somehow killed lawfully. Now his bereaved family is being targeted by hate vendors driven by chauvinism and racism. His grieving sister said:
People are saying we are only working class, that he was black, and he shouldn’t have even been in the country and that we are to go home to our own country.
The trial of George Bento is over but matters should not rest there. Serious consideration should be given to the establishment of a tribunal of inquiry to examine the full range of circumstances surrounding the killing of Josh Dunne. The purpose would not be to overturn the jury's verdict or have a retrial for George Bento. It would be attain a simple ruling that Josh Dunne was not lawfully killed.
I followed this case, completely dismayed at the outcome,. to say Josh Dunne was lawfully killed was outrageous. You would have to ask why would anyone be carrying a knife, never mind the way it was used in this case. A terrible loss of life for the Dunne family. I hope they get some form of justice for Josh.
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