SAOIRSE32

BBC
9 Oct 2008

A teenage girl has told the trial of five people charged with the murder of a Ballymena schoolboy that she saw blood on the shoulder of one defendant.

The witness, who cannot be named because of her age, told the court she saw the blood on Aaron Cavana Wallace, 20, after the attack.

In an interview shown to the court, the girl said she saw Mr Wallace of Moat Road with three other defendants.

The Catholic teenager was killed in an alleyway near Ballymena town centre.

The witness said she saw Mr Wallace standing with three other defendants - 22-year-old Christopher Kerr, of Carnduff Drive, Jeff Colin Lewis, 19, of Rossdale in Ballymena and 20-year-old Mervyn Wilson Moon of Douglas Terrace in Ballymena - in amongst a group of about 10 to 20 people at the leisure centre in the town.

Moon has already pleaded guilty to a charge of murder and will be sentenced at the end of the trial.

She told police she heard Mr Wallace saying “they give somebody a kicking”.

During a cross-examination, the witness said she could not be 100% sure Mr Wallace made the remark, but said she had a clear memory of seeing the defendant with blood on his shoulder.

Another witness, 18-year-old Nuala Knowles, told police she had seen Mr Lewis and Mr Wallace in the alleyway where Michael McIlveen was beaten and kicked.

She was at a party and said she got a clear view of Mr Wallace’s face through an open garden gate and that she had seen Lewis with his hand up his sleeve, as if he had something up there.

Ms Knowles said she had heard the “screaming of a boy” in the alleyway and that someone had shouted “you’re a wee fenian”.

The witness also said in her taped police interview that she believed the group who attacked the deceased “needed distractions, so no-one could hear the shouts of them hitting Michael, so it was as if they were trying to cause distractions so no-one could get out (to help).”

During a cross examination by Brian McCartney, who is defending Mr Wallace, Ms Knowles admitted she had not seen his client “trying to beat the back gate in”, something she had told police in her interview.

The hearing continues.

BBC
9 Oct 2008

The man acquitted of being involved in the Northern Bank robbery is challenging his former employer’s decision to sack him.

Chris Ward’s solicitor said he was dismissed from his job in Northern Bank’s headquarters after speaking to the media about his ordeal.

Niall Murphy said the “proceedings that had to be engaged were not instituted for two and a half years.”

Mr Murphy said this was “an amazing delay for any employment procedure”.

“He will be pursuing what he considers to be his unlawful dismissal so soon as possible within the industrial tribunal.

“Papers have been lodged for an industrial tribunal hearing. It couldn’t be listed until the criminal trial had been concluded but he will be looking forward to that, possibly in the new year.”

For Immediate Release

Italy 32CSM is disgusted at the continuing medical negligence that Aidan Hulme is being subjected to. We therefore ask everyone to please send a Get Well Soon Card to Aidan Hulme. This small gesture will take five minutes of your time and will show Aidan that people know of his situation and that our thoughts are with him. Please tell him that he has support and that efforts are being taken to highlight his plight all over the world and that people are working for him to get him the help he needs.

Please send all cards to

Aidan Hulme
E3 Portlaoise
Gaol
Portlaoise

Received from Italy 32CSM:

Alarming concern has been expressed for the continuing medical condition of republican prisoner Aidan Hulme in Portlaoise Prison. Following a visit from a Doctor it was observed that Aidan’s toes on his injured leg had turned black giving rise to fears of possible gangrene. The Doctor relayed to the Prison Governor that Aidan should be seen by a Consultant in this field as a medical imperative. The Governor has stated thatAidan’s case would be prioritised but as of yet no decisive action has been taken.

Aidan is currently on twenty one tablets a day and requires the use of Morphine Patches to alleviate pain. His complexion has turned yellow which may indicate liver damage as a result of the high dosage of medication. He is currently confined to bed twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. The Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association urges all republican and socialist groups to campaign vigorously to ensure Aidan’s medical needs are urgently met. We will be petitioning Minister Dermot Ahern to intervene immediately so that Aidan can receive the proper medical attention in a proper medical facility.

Marian Price
IRPWA

www.upthera.net

Breaking News.ie
09/10/2008

The Supreme Court has commenced hearing an appeal brought on the behalf of 54-year-old building contractor Colm Murphy aimed at stopping his re-trial on a conspiracy charge connected with the Real IRA Omagh bombing in which 29 people died.

Last October at the High Court Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill refused Mr Murphy’s application to prevent his re-trial, which is due to be held before the non-jury Special Criminal Court.

Mr Murphy claims that his prosecution should not be allowed go ahead on grounds including that the delay in bringing proceedings has prejudiced his right to a fair and speedy trial.

Mr Murphy a building contractor and publican who is a native of Co Armagh but with an address at Jordan’s Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth appealed that decision to the Supreme Court. The DPP is opposing Mr Murphy’s application.

The appeal is being heard by a five judge Supreme Court, consisting of the Chief Justice Mr John Murray, Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan, Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman, Mr Justice Nial Fennelly and Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan.

Opening the appeal today Counsel for Mr Murphy Michael O’Higgins SC said that the High Court had fallen into error by holding that the delays did not breach his client’s rights.

Yesterday’s hearing was adjourned and will resume at a later date.

Mr Murphy was freed on bail in 2005 after the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed his conviction and 14-year sentence for a conspiracy offence connected with the Real IRA bombing of Omagh in 1998.

Twenty nine people, including a pregnant woman with twins, died as a result of the act.

The appeal court overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial, which was due to begin last January after finding that the court of trial - the non-jury Special Criminal Court - had failed to give proper regard to altered Garda interview notes.

It found there had been “an invasion of the presumption of innocence” in the SCC judgment on Mr Murphy.

During his 25-day trial in 2001 and 2002, Mr Murphy had pleaded not guilty to conspiring in Dundalk with another person not before the court to cause an explosion in the State or elsewhere between August 13 and 16, 1998.

BBC
09 Oct 2008

The trial has collapsed of the only man charged with the £26.5m Northern Bank robbery in December 2004.

Chris Ward, 26, was found not guilty of facilitating the massive cash robbery at the Northern’s Belfast headquarters.

Chris Ward’s solicitor, Niall Murphy, gives a statement outside court

Watch video

The judge said: “Given the decision to present no further evidence, I could not arrive at any other verdict.”

His defence lawyer claimed: “The mere fact he was a Catholic and charged with this offence was enough to seal his guilt in the eyes of some people.”

Niall Murphy added: “This Kafka-esque farce started from the premise that Chris Ward was guilty and worked backwards, rather than commencing with the evidence and working forwards.”

Speaking outside Belfast Crown Court, he said Mr Ward had been denied the presumption of innocence from the beginning.

“He should have appeared at this court today as a witness for the prosecution, instead he found himself in the dock for a crime he did not commit and of which he remains a victim,” he said.

Mr Ward was also cleared of robbing the bank and two further charges of falsely imprisoning bank colleague Kevin McMullan and his wife Karyn.

The trial at Belfast Crown Court began on 9 September and lasted four weeks.

The prosecution’s case against Mr Ward, of Colinmill, Poleglass, was based on circumstantial evidence.

The gang that robbed the bank had such detailed knowledge about its security procedures that detectives believed they had an inside man.

Mr Ward’s family was one of those taken hostage by the gang, but police believed the 26-year-old had been a willing accomplice.

A key part of the prosecution case was a claim Mr Ward had made a last-minute change to the work rota to ensure he was on duty to facilitate the robbery.

However, during the trial it emerged that dozens of people could have known the identities of keyholders who had access to the bullion room where the money was stored.

On Thursday, prosecution counsel Gordon Kerr QC said the case had been brought before the court based on circumstantial evidence.

“An essential strand related to the circumstances in which the defendant came to be on the rota of the late shift of the Northern Bank on the day of the robbery.

“(It was) fundamental in the case to the prosecution inviting the court to draw inference from other parts of the case.”

He added that differences had arisen during the trial around the rota which prompted the rethink.

“Having considered the remaining evidence and the advice of counsel… it has been concluded that it would not be proper to make further submissions.”

Mr Justice McLaughlin told the packed court that the Public Prosecution Service’s decision to offer no further evidence was “fully justified”.

He said the “audacious” robbery had been meticulously planned.

“The community should understand this is far from being a victimless crime. Those caught up in it are still traumatised by it almost four years later and for some, their livelihoods and careers are shattered,” he said.

“They should have our sympathy and concern.”

News Letter
09 October 2008

THE solicitor of Christopher Ward, who was accused of the Northern Bank robbery, has demanded his client receive an apology.

Niall Murphy was speaking outside Belfast Crown Court after Ward walked free after charges against him were dropped when the prosecution opted to present no further evidence.

In a forthright statement, Mr Murphy criticised the conduct of the police investigation.

“His (Ward’s) acquittal, five weeks into a trial with almost two months of evidence still to be heard, is itself an illustration of the flawed approach of this investigation which has been exposed in the public hearings which have been held to date,” he said.

“While Mr Ward welcomes this recognition, even at this late stage, that the evidence as opened by the Crown simply could not stand the rigours of the trial process, he is also satisfied that further flaws in the Crown’s case could and would have been exposed had the trial proceeded.”

The solicitor, speaking on behalf of his cleint, demanded a root and branch analysis of how some high-profile criminal cases were prosecuted.

“Millions of pounds have been spent in the pursuit of an innocent man who in turn was caught up in a case that attracted international political condemnation for reasons other than the robbery of a bank.

“For that Mr Ward is now entitled to an apology.”

Mr Murphy added the fact that his client was a Catholic and charged with the offence was enough to seal his guilt in the eyes of some.

The bank worker accused of participating in the £26.5 million robbery of his employer Northern Bank in Belfast has walked free from court today after charges against him were dropped.

Telegraph.co.uk
09 Oct 2008

Chris Ward, 26, was cleared of one of Britain’s largest heists amid dramatic scenes at Belfast Crown Court.

Chris Ward maintained his innocence throughout the trial Photo: PA

The Northern Bank employee maintained his innocence throughout the trial after prosecutors claimed he acted as an inside man in the raid.

Police blamed it on the IRA but Sinn Fein denied any involvement.

Trial judge Mr Justice McLaughlin said: “I consider the decision of the Director for Public Prosecutions to be fully justified and proper.

“Given the decision to present no further evidence, I could not arrive at any other verdict and I conclude that Chris Ward is not guilty of the three counts in front of me.”

Mr Ward, from Colinmill, Poleglass, on the outskirts of West Belfast, denied robbing the Belfast bank and abducting colleague Kevin McMullan and his wife Kyran.

The trial, which started on September 9, heard the families of Mr Ward and Mr McMullan were held hostage in their homes in West Belfast and County Down while the key-holders for the bank’s vault went to work in December 2004.

Prosecutors had attempted to link them to the operation, which saw thieves escape with a van from the bank’s cash centre loaded with money.

Mr Ward’s solicitor, Niall Murphy, said: “Chris Ward is relieved that today his innocence, which he has resolutely maintained since he was first charged almost three years ago, has finally been vindicated in a manner which is surely unique in the history of our legal system.

“The whole experience for himself and his family, who were victims of kidnapping, false imprisonment and robbery, was truly devastating.”

He added that nobody who had witnessed the quiet dignity of Mr Ward’s father’s evidence could have failed to have been moved by the distress of the family.

“This has been utterly compounded by his arrest, his detention for the longest period of any individual ever held in police custody in this jurisdiction, and being put on trial for a crime he did not commit and his life thereby destroyed.”

The robbers targeted Mr McMullan’s home in Loughinisland pretending to be police officers. They snatched Kyran and said that if her husband did not facilitate the raid she would die.

During the trial, assistant bank manager Mr McMullan said: “It was easy to take £26.5m outside to a van on the street, yes. We disguised it as rubbish.”

Mr Justice McLaughlin interjected: “It’s not like the movies, you don’t need dynamite.”

Mr McMullan responded: “You just need to take someone’s wife away from them.”

Mr McMullan told the trial he had been terrified that at any time between his arrival to start work at noon and the last of the cash being taken away more than seven hours later, he would be found out following the hostage taking the night before.

He recounted at one stage standing in the bank’s bullion loading bay with two trolleys containing millions in notes when one of the security guards wandered over for a chat.

The gang, he said, made it clear: “I was going to have to be the boss, that I was going to have to be a fantastic actor.”

07 Oct 2008

The DUP has suggested the Alliance Party gets a place on the committee examining the transfer of policing.

The Assembly and Executive Review committee has agreed to seek advice on how this could be done.

It could be accomplished by an existing member stepping down, or increasing the committee membership from 11 to 12.

During the summer Sinn Féin and the DUP agreed in principle that a future justice minister should be elected by a cross-community vote.

That decision has led to speculation that the Alliance Party could be invited to do the job.

The devolution of policing powers has been a contentious issue between the DUP and Sinn Féin.

Sunday Journal.ie
**Via Newshound
05 October 2008

Dissident republican group, the Real IRA, have warned what they describe as a Derry based ‘drug gang’ that they have seven days to ‘forward themselves to the republican movement or face execution on sight.’

The chilling warning came in a claim of responsibility for last week’s shooting of a Derry man, Declan Gallagher, in Donegal.

Stating that Mr. Gallagher has ‘24 hours to leave the country’ the dissident group stated: “If he refuses volunteers will be instructed to execute this man on sight.”

The dissident group made serious allegations against Mr. Gallagher stating that he was the leader of ‘an organised gang importing hard drugs into Derry City on behalf of loyalist drug lords.”

The statement added: “Oglaigh Na hEireann has smashed this gang and sends a clear and decisive warning to others who operate in the knowledge that they could be next. They added ‘we reiterate the seriousness of this threat.’

The statement concluded: “Oglaigh Na hEireann has shown that it is committed to eradicating drug gangs in this city, we are now armed and well organised.”

Declan Gallagher was wounded last week in a shooting near St. Johnston. A female passenger in the car with him at the time was briefly abducted and released a short time later. The Gardai said after the shooting that they were still investigating a motive for the attack.

This is the latest claim from the Real IRA accusing a shooting victim of being involved in drugs. Earlier this year they claimed responsibility for the shooting of a man in Creggan and he too was warned to leave the city.

BBC
08 Oct 2008

Hundreds of people have attended the funeral in Derry of Peggy McGuinness, the mother of the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

Mrs McGuinness, who was 84, died at her home on Monday after a short illness.

Among those at the funeral were the Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, former SDLP leader John Hume, and former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.

At Requiem Mass at St Columba’s church, Father Roland Colhoun described Mrs McGuinness as “a woman of substance”.

“She was a very good woman, whose neighbours spoke of her many thoughtful deeds, showing constant consideration for them,” he said.

Mrs McGuinness will be buried in her home town of Buncrana.

On Monday, the First Minister Peter Robinson paid tribute to Mrs McGuinness, telling the Assembly that anyone who spoke to Mr McGuinness would know how close he was to his mother.

SDLP leader and Foyle MP Mark Durkan said Mrs McGuinness was “a very kindly woman with real charm”.

BBC
08 Oct 2008

A murdered schoolboy begged a friend for help moments before he was attacked by a gang, a court has been told.

Michael McIlveen, 15, died after being attacked in a car park following a chase through an alleyway in Ballymena.

Five people deny the 2006 murder. A 20-year-old has pleaded guilty to the murder and is awaiting sentence.

Sean Norris, who was at house party behind the alley, told Antrim Crown Court the youth called to him: “I need your help, these boys are chasing me.”

Mr Norris said he saw Jeff Colin Lewis, 19, of Rossdale, Ballymena enter the alleyway and fight with the boy then invite him to a nearby car park.

The witness said moments later he saw “a crowd” running down the alleyway in the opposite direction and “a big boy in a white jumper” before he escaped into a garden.

During cross examination by defence counsel for Christopher Francis Kerr, 22, of Carnduff Drive in Ballymena, Mr Norris denied seeing another witness, Christopher Graham, with a knife.

He also denied having any knowledge of a Samauri sword being kept in a hut in Mr Graham’s back garden.

It was also put to him that he had been “taken up” by the police in Easter 2006 for a disturbance in the car park close to where Mr McIlveen was attacked.

Mr Norris told the court that he had been questioned by police for having a golf club, which he said he was using to “hit stones across the car park” and confirmed that three others had also been questioned, one of whom had a “sling shot”.

Mr Norris was not charged with an offence.

The lawyer asked him if he was “in conflict with other young people at the bottom end of the town” which he denied.

The court also heard evidence from another witness, Terrence Graham, 18, who was also at the party.

He told the jury that he remained inside the house and did not see the assault but heard someone shouting sectarian abuse.

Mr Graham said he heard the gate of the garden being “smashed through” and saw “a lot of people run past with hoods”.

The hearing continues.