Nama trial: Twitter messages aired in court

The evidence was presented at the ‘Nama’ trial and included a message allegedly sent by Mr Bryson which said “who would ever have thought it, me and SF working together as the DUP squirm! Unreal!”

Mr Bryson is one of three men currently on trial at Belfast Crown Court on charges arising from a meeting of the assembly's finance and personnel committee.

In September 2015, the committee was investigating how Northern Ireland property loans were handled by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) and on September 23 of that year, Mr 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.

In the aftermath of Mr Bryson's appearance in Stormont almost 10 years ago, Mr Robinson issued a statement and branded the allegations made against him as “scurrilous and unfounded” and without “one iota of evidence”.

It's the Crown's case that the rules of this committee – which was chaired by Sinn Fein's Daithi McKay – were subverted to cause political embarrassment to Mr Robinson who, in September 2015, occupied the position of first minister.

The Crown also 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.

During today's hearing, a series of messages which the Crown say were exchanged between Mr Bryson and Mr McKay, and also between Mr Bryson and the Twitter account of Mr O'Hara, were aired.

The messages were presented in court as screenshots from Twitter sent and received before the committee session was held.

In the alleged messages between Mr Bryson and Mr McKay, Mr Bryson talked of the need for “transparency” when giving his evidence, with Mr McKay reminding Mr Bryson to keep within the committee's terms of reference.

The non-jury trial, which is now in its second week, also heard about a series of messages allegedly exchanged between Mr Bryson and the Twitter account of Mr O'Hara the day before the committee meeting was held.

Messages from Mr O'Hara's account to Mr Bryson include “A wee suggestion for you ... when talking about Robinson, refer to him as Person A. Say what you have to say about him, referring to him as Person A, then in your final line say Person A is Peter Robinson, MLA. It means the committee cannot interrupt you and it means that you don't have to say Robbo's name until the very last second then it's job done.”

In a further exchange, a message sent from Mr O'Hara's account told Mr Bryson “read the top table and don't snap back at the DUP. Kill them with kindness. Be professional and courteous”.

At hearing.