I cannot believe the resources the state has mustered to go after a guy for making a tweet.

I'm writing this on the lunch break of Kirk Loco's trial in Bray, County Wicklow, about an hour south of Dublin. Kirk is being prosecuted for a tweet warning young women about migrant men harassing girls on a public bus. The tweet was true. And the man he warned about was in the courtroom today as the prosecution's main witness.

I can't identify him. He's a refugee claimant, and the lawyers and police warned me not to say anything that could reveal who he is. I'll say only that he needed an Arabic translator.

He testified he did nothing wrong, that he was just looking for a place to plug in his phone. Then he said his phone fell on the floor, which is why he got up and sat down next to the teenage girls. He never explained why he moved from the seat in front of them to the seat beside them, blocking the aisle.

According to the girl, he groped her, his belt was undone and his pants were so low his pubic hair was visible. She was so frightened she fled downstairs on the double-decker bus.

How do we know all this? There were about 10 CCTV cameras on that bus. They show him moving back and forth around the girl. They show that when the bus stopped and it was clear he was in trouble, he went to the back and played possum. Thirty-eight seconds from chatting to another passenger to out cold.

Go Ad Free

The driver testified he was obviously faking. Asked about that, he told the court: “I'm known as a very quick sleeper.”

I've been to 100 trials in my life, maybe more, and I don't think I've ever seen a shiftier witness. He took two or three positions on every question and switched mid-answer. I don't think the judge was buying it either.

Laoise de Brún, the barrister we're crowdfunding for Kirk, sliced and diced him on cross-examination. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Then a senior Garda took the stand and talked about the refugee accommodation at Newtownmountkennedy. He described the migrant men there as “vulnerable.”

Irish teenage girls are allegedly being harassed, and the men are the vulnerable ones?

He also described an incident where men from that centre were filming young girls at a sporting event. His response was to have them delete the videos — he deleted the evidence.

There's a term in psychology, DARVO: deny, attack, reverse victim and offender. That's what I watched today. The whole system is upside down. The hero of this story, according to the prosecution, is a man who admitted touching this girl and having his pants down. The villain is the man who warned the neighbourhood.

This is Kirk's 10th court appearance. He faces possible jail. The trial is only half over, and I'll have more from inside the courtroom.

If you want to help pay for Kirk's lawyers, and for Hugh Fagan, who goes on trial Tuesday, please go to IrishFreeSpeech.com.

I don't think I'm easily shocked. I've seen too much. But I have never seen anything like this. Ireland needs help.