Case against three defendants in NAMA trial concludes as judge warns over Twitter comments

Now in its second week, the non-jury trial is being held in Belfast Crown Court.

Three men have been charged with offences arising from an Assembly Committee meeting which took place at Stormont a decade ago.

In September 2015, the Finance and Personnel Committee was investigating how Northern Ireland property loans were handled by the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) and on September 23 of that year, loyalist activist Jamie Bryson gave evidence at the meeting.

During the session, he named a number of people, including the DUP's Peter Robinson, who he claimed would benefit financially from the NAMA deal.

The Chairman of the Committee at that time was Sinn Fein's Daithi McKay, and both he, Mr Bryson and a third defendant Thomas Gerard O'Hara have been charges with offences linked to that meeting.

The Crown allege that due to messages exchanged between Mr Bryson and the two Sinn Fein members Mr McKay and Mr O'Hara prior to the meeting, there was manipulation of how this evidence was presented.

Mr Bryson (35) from Rosepark in Donaghadee and Thomas Gerard O'Hara (41) from Lisnahunshin Road in Cullybackey have both been charged that on dates between September 1 and 24, 2015, they 'conspired together and with Daithi McKay to commit an offence of misconduct in a public office.'

Mr McKay, who is 43 and from Loughan Road in Dunnamanagh, has been charged with misconduct in a public office on September 23, 2015. All three defendants have denied the charges levelled against them.

Prior to the Crown closing its case, Judge Gordon Kerr KC was addressed by Des Fahy KC, the barrister representing Mr O'Hara.

Mr Fahy raised concerns about comments that appeared about the trial on Twitter on Wednesday evening.

The barrister told Judge Kerr "we have a situation where a defendant in a criminal trial is providing commentary by Twitter on the conduct of the trial" which he felt was "impugning the reputation of legal representatives."

Mr Fahy said such behaviour in a jury trial could be deemed contempt and could led to the collapse of the trial. He added: "It is not a proper course of action for a defendant in a trial before Your Honour to be providing live commentary on what lawyers for another defendant are or are not doing in the context of that trial."

Judge Kerr said he agreed with what Mr Fahy said "100%" and said he felt it was "entirely inappropriate for a defendant in a trial" to be commenting on the case on social media. He told the court "it is quite wrong and should not continue."

During today's hearing, Judge Kerr was also addressed by Crown barrister Toby Hedworth KC regarding an email allegedly sent by Mc McKay in August 2016.

This was objected to by Mr McKay's barrister Martin O'Rourke KC who said the email had "no provenance".

Following brief legal discussions, Mr Hedworth said the Crown was "unable to advance that argument so we will not pursue it."

A final witness, a police officer, was called to give evidence and he confirmed that in May 2019 he carried out research on Mr McKay's Twitter account.

After the officer left the witness box, Mr Hedworth again addressed Judge Kerr and said "that then is the case on behalf of the prosecution."

The hearing was then adjourned until next week when the defence are expected to launch legal applications.