THREE Spanish friends have been spared jail for a €18,000 graffiti attack on Dart carriages at a train depot in Dublin.
Garcia Diaz (30), Francisco Espinosa (27) and Jonay Gallo (25), described as “talented” artists, caused “enormous inconvenience and expense” to Irish Rail when they spray painted the two trains, a court heard.
Judge Pauline Codd said it was unacceptable to use trains as a ‘canvas’ for a ‘misguided artistic endeavour’.
The three pleaded guilty to the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for criminal damages claims.
Diaz, a factory worker in Madrid with no fixed address, and Espinosa, a construction worker from Seville with an address at Susan Terrace, Dublin 8 each received two years’ suspended sentences.
Gallo, a Burgos waiter who lives on Dublin’s Mount Shannon Road, was given a longer suspended sentence of two and a half years for recording the graffiti on his phone as well.
Garda Richard Ledwidge said four carriages on two separate adjacent trains were sprayed with tags at Fairview Dart Depot on Oct. 10 last year.
The cost of the damage was €12,193, with a loss of income of €6,554 because the carriages could not be used for two days – the total was €18,747.
The court heard that at 2:59 p.m. a guard saw “four boys” spraying the carriages while monitoring CCTV footage.
He went onto the track and saw one of the men taking in the others. When they told the gardai would be called, they kept spraying. He followed them as they crossed the tracks and dumped their bags in a ditch.
Gardai arrived and the four broke up and fled over roads in East Wall. Gallo and Diaz ran into a dead end and sat down when they were told to stand on the floor.
Espinosa continued to run and was chased before being caught and brought to the ground.
The fourth man was not arrested.
Video and photos of the spray paint were found on Gallo’s phone. Only Diaz said something of probative value in an interview, telling gardai: “I didn’t come specifically to paint trains…I didn’t come on purpose to cause trouble.”
He took responsibility for a “Skab” tag on a train.
None of the suspects had previous convictions and all had apologized.
Gallo has a degree in graphic design and had worked in the field in Madrid before coming to Ireland to learn English, his lawyer Oisin Clarke said. He was a “talented person” with an interest in street art, but had used his talent that day to do something that was “inappropriate” and a criminal offense in a “very foolish undertaking”.
He had lost his job as a content moderator for Facebook here as a result of publicity from the case.
Judge Codd asked if the video he made should be posted on the internet “as a joke.”
Clarke said there was “no real, good explanation” and that it was “an afternoon of madness”.
These types of offenses were a much smaller offense in Spain, he said.
Judge Codd said it seemed to be “a kind of misguided and misguided artistic endeavor” to use Irish Rail’s trains as “a canvas”.
Luigi Rea, for Diaz, said there was artistic content that some would consider graffiti while others would consider it art.
“Had the word ‘Banksy’ been written on the carriage it would have been worth millions at this stage,” he noted.
He said the activity was more frequent across the continent and that in a sunny climate there could be a ‘more attractive’ aspect to it than in a ‘wet, gloomy Irish winter’.
The offense was a “misapplication of (Diaz’s) passion for art on Irish Rail’s carriages.”
Diaz had arrived “late to the party” and arrived in Ireland for the weekend at the time.
Espinosa had worked as a lifeguard and was in Ireland learning English, his lawyer Tom Horan said. He had a passion for art and was paid to paint the sides of buildings in Spain. He accepted that what he did on this occasion was “absolutely inappropriate”.
It was all very well for people to have artistic temperaments, but it was not acceptable to use the property of others as a canvas, Judge Codd said.
“There has to be a discouragement for people doing this kind of work, no matter how talented they are,” the judge said.
Each of the accused had significant artistic talent, but there had to be a deterrent to expressing it this way, she said.
Each accused paid partial damages, and Judge Codd gave them a year to pay the balance, totaling $12,000. She said she does not require them to pay the full amount due to their limited resources.
The judge took into account allegations of trespassing on a railroad and possession of objects with intent to cause criminal harm.