Man given suspended prison sentence for failing to disclose phone PINs under Terrorism Act terms

​Ciaran Ferguson, 38, of William Street in Londonderry, pleaded guilty to offences in relation to April 25 and August 20 last year.

The defendant was at Antrim Magistrates' Court, sitting in Ballymena, for sentencing. The court was told that on April 25 the defendant was flying out to Majorca, and on the other occasion he was returning from Faro in Portugal.

On April 25 the defendant was stopped and asked by the authorities to provide the access code for his mobile phone but he refused and was told of his duty under the Terrorism Act.

On August 20 he also refused to provide a Personal Information Number (PIN) for a mobile phone.

The court was told the phones were seized and a defence barrister said they have “never been returned”.

The court heard the defendant had a clear record.

The defence barrister said on April 25 the defendant had been going to a friend's “stag do” in Majorca and was “taken unawares” and was shocked to be “surrounded by police at the airport”.

She said the defendant accepted he “shouldn't have reacted in the way he did” and should have fully complied “but his main concern at that point was everything was on his phone, his money through Revolut which he planned to use when he was abroad; his boarding passes”.

The barrister said physical boarding passes were printed out to enable him to get the flight.

District Judge Nigel Broderick said: “He lost his phone for his trip abroad. That was surely inconvenient. You would think that would be an incentive to give the authorities your PIN.”

The barrister said it had been indicated that “PIN or no PIN he wasn't getting his phone back that day”.

On the second occasion he had been returning from a wedding with his partner.

The barrister said the defendant “felt particularly aggrieved at being targeted again” and he “couldn't rationalise why he had been selected again”.

The lawyer said the defendant accepts he should have complied.

The judge said: “There is always a suspicion when someone doesn't give their PIN he is hiding something. That may or may not be true but while the PIN remains extant there is always a cloud of suspicion.”

The defence barrister said on both occasions the defendant “failed to appreciate that point of view”.

The charges are part of the Terrorism Act.

The judge said the defendant is now going to have two convictions “under the Terrorism Act” on his record.

The court heard the defendant works as a “stock supervisor” in a hospital.

The barrister said a report prepared for the court explored “lifestyle and associates”.

She said there had been exploration of the defendant's “political views” and she said “nothing has ever been borne out to suggest that Mr Ferguson has any community links to paramilitary organisations or is in any way involved with political ideologies that would be supportive of terrorism”.

The judge said the refusal to provide PIN codes makes “people think, those who are investigating these issues, that he has got something to hide but yet you are telling me he has nothing to hide”.

The barrister said the defendant suffered a brain injury in 2020 and it causes “issues with memory” and he has “issues surrounding his thought processes”. She said the defendant had displayed “poor decision making and a lack of consequential thinking”.

Judge Broderick said the maximum sentence for the charge was three months in prison. He said the defendant had pleaded guilty, had a clear record and he was assessed in a Department of Justice report as a “low risk or reoffending”.

The judge told the defendant: “When somebody is stopped under the Terrorism Act and is asked to provide the PIN for their mobile phone and don't provide it not once but twice there is a cloud of suspicion hanging over the whole situation.

“You may have told your barrister you have nothing to hide but the PIN hasn't been provided and that cloud of suspicion remains.”

The defendant was given a two-months prison term, suspended for two years.