PPS considering appealing sentences of Continuity IRA men after MI5-PSNI operation saw seven jailed

The seven were arrested after a PSNI-MI5 bugging operation on a house in Newry in 2014, and were sentenced in Belfast on Friday.

All admitted charges such as providing weapons training and preparing acts of terror.

The recordings uncovered plots such as targeting a prison governor out walking.

None of the terrorists was sentenced to longer than five years in prison.

In Saturday’s News Letter UUP Justice Spokesman Doug Beattie called for a review of the sentences.

A PPS spokeswoman said today: “The PPS is currently considering whether there is a legal basis to refer the sentences handed down in this case to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that they may be unduly lenient.

“An unduly lenient sentence is one that falls outside the range of sentences that a judge, taking into consideration all relevant factors and having regard to sentencing guidance, could reasonably consider appropriate. In other words the sentence must not just be lenient, but must be unduly lenient.”

It is understood that, in certain cases, including this one, the Director of Public Prosecutions has 28 days from the date a sentence is imposed within which to consider all relevant matters before reaching a view on whether a referral should be made to the Court of Appeal.

On Saturday UUP Justice spokesman Doug Beattie MLA said: “The UUP is clear that the Northern Ireland justice system is incredibly lenient - far more lenient than anywhere else in the UK.”

He contrasted the sentencing to that of Ciarán Maxwell from Larne, who got 18 years at the Old Bailey in 2017 for terror offences. “Had he been tried in Northern Ireland he would likely have got about seven years,” Mr Beattie said.

“So where the rest of these islands take this seriously, Northern Ireland seems to give a bye-ball to these terrorists and our sentencing does not match the crime. We must get real with these people and sentencing must act as a deterrent.”

“Some of these men could be back on the streets in around three years and may well be back under some form of supervision but they will be allowed to mix with the same people they mixed with before they went to jail.”

He said that the “seperated” prison regime - which allows loyalists and republicans to maintain their own wings, will radicalise the seven men even further.

“So when they come back out onto the streets you won’t have somebody who has changed or mended his way. That is why we must get rid of the separated prison regime. A three year sentence will be merely a badge of honour among their peers. Had these people been given 12 years they would not be coming out so sprightly to say that it was a badge of honour.”

Seven men were caught in the MI5 bugging operation targeting the Continuity IRA.

The defendants pleaded guilty at Belfast Crown Court in January this year to charges arising from a MI5 surveillance operation against the Continuity IRA in Newry in 2014.

Patrick Joseph ‘Mooch’ Blair, 65, of Lissara Heights, Warrenpoint, Joseph Matthew Lynch, 79, of Beechgrove Avenue, Weston, Co Limerick, Liam Hannaway, 50, of White Rise, Dunmurry, John Sheehy,  36, of Erskine Street, Newry and Colin Patrick Winters, 49, of Ardcarn Park, Newry, all pleaded guilty to charges of belonging or professing to belong to a proscribed organisation, providing weapons and explosives training, conspiring to possess explosives, firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life.

They further admitted preparing acts of terrorism. Blair, Hannaway and Winters  admitted collecting information of use to terrorists.

Sheehy further pleaded guilty to attending a meeting at Ardcarn Park for the purposes of terrorist training. Winters also admitted to allowing his Ardcarn Park home to be used for a terror meeting.

The court previously heard that Winters died in August.

As well as admitting he received weapons training, Joseph Lynch pleaded guilty to two counts of attending a meeting for terror purposes.

Seamus Morgan, 64, of Barcroft Park, Newry, Kevin John Paul Heaney, 47, of Blackstaff Mews, Springfield Road in West Belfast and Terence Marks, 60, of Parkhead Crescent, Newry, admitted belonging to a proscribed group.

Marks also admitted to a further charge of receiving training in the making or use of explosives for terror.

The offences took place between August 11, 2014 and November 11, 2014.

‘Mooch’ Blair and Hannaway yesterday received five years in jail and were also found to pose a danger to the public in the future because of their past terrorist convictions.

Passing sentence on the pair, Mr Justice Colton said neither man had disavowed “dissident republican activity’’.

The judge said that it was evident from the tape recordings that both men played “significant and leading roles’’ at those meetings of the Continuity IRA. He told the two-hour sentencing hearing that after serving five years in jail, it would be up to the Parole Commissioners to decide if it was safe to release them.

Mr Justice Colton told Belfast Crown Court that the contents of the discussions which included plots to kill and make bombs made for “grim and depressing reading’’.

He added that “all right thinking people and law abiding citizens believe that the days of shootings, killings and explosions are in the past”.

Although the defendants faced only conspiracy charges, Mr Justice Colton said the plots had been “thwarted’’ when police raided the meeting house in Newry’s Ardcarn Park on November 10, 2014.

The court heard that the secret recordings revealed:

:: a plot to target a prison governor out walking in Co Down

:: a plot to target police

:: robbery plots on homes for cash an legally-held firearms

:: frustrations at the lack of weapons, ammunition, low membership numbers and finances to fund its terror

:: training of individuals in pipe bombs and firearms

It was the prosecution case that ‘Mooch’ Blair was the leader of the Continuity IRA while Hannaway was his number two. The third was Joseph ‘Tiny’ Lynch.

Mr Justice Colton said Lynch had now cut all ties with dissident republican activity, had pleaded guilty to “serious and specified” offences but that he did not believe he posed a future danger.

Lynch got a six and a half year term, with three years and three months in custody and the remainder on  licence. John Sheehy was handed a six year sentence — half in custody and half on licence.

Terence Marks, who received instructions in the use of explosives, was told he would serve two years in jail followed by two on licence.

Kevin Heaney was handed a three and a half year sentence, divided equally between custody and probation.

Seamus Morgan, who was jailed in 1975 for an explosion in Newry, was given 18 months in custody followed by 18 months on licence.

All defendants were made subject of counter-terror notifications, from ten years to 30 years.