MI5 bugging pair sentenced but walk free from court for time served on remand

Judge Patricia Smyth told 52-year-old Daniel Joseph Anthony McClean, and 42-year-old Robert Warnock O’Neill that due to “evidential issues” in the case, their pleas were welcomed.

Both McClean from Lagmore Gardens in Dunmurry and O’Neill of Bingnian Drive, in west Belfast, admitted assaulting an unknown man and collecting information useful to terrorists on suspected drug dealers. Charges of IRA membership were ‘left on the books’.

O’Neill was handed a sentence of two years and eight months, and McClean was sentenced to two years. Both sentences were divided equally between custody and licence, meaning that due to time served, both men were not returned to prison.

The whole incident was captured on an MI5 covert bugging of a house in Dunmurry’s Aspen Walk on February 6, 2014, and although the suspected dealer is heard being slapped once, it was accepted there was no evidence to suggest they administered it.

However, during the 41-minute recording, McClean was identified as playing an aggressive role, even threatening, “If you tell anybody, I will come through your front door,” while O’Neill was heard complaining of dissidents getting a bad name, although “we are not selling drugs”.

In her sentencing, Judge Smyth said there was no evidence that anyone was harmed as a consequence of the information collected, adding: “Much of this information was probably already known to these people.”

McClean has a counterfeiting offence dating back 20 years, while O’Neill’s record includes offences such as hijacking, possessing a prohibited weapon, possessing firearms, and wounding.

Eugene Grant QC, for McClean, said his client – a taxi driver – had “honoured” very stringent bail conditions for several years awaiting trial and his minor criminal record was “of some vintage” and “not relevant to this case”.

O’Neill’s barrister Greg Berry QC also spoke of the delay in bringing his case to court, and while he acknowledged O’Neill’s record, told Judge Smyth “he had not reoffended in five years”.

Originally the pair had gone on trial last November along with two others, Dunmurry man Mark Gerard Heaney, 52, of Lagmore Glen, and 62-year-old Kevin O’Neill from Coolnasilla Park South in Andersonstown.

During the non-jury Diplock-style trial, the court heard that a group of men were bugged by MI5 agents as they allegedly discussed dissident IRA tactics.

MI5 agents, screened from the court, told of planting and retrieving the bugs, but refused to elaborate on their workings, even to acknowledge they were ‘covert devices’, claiming it could ‘damage national security’ if more were said.

The trial came to an abrupt end earlier this month with McClean and O’Neill’s guilty pleas, after which no further evidence was offered against their former co-accused, who were acquitted by direction of Judge Smyth of IRA membership, and separate charges relating to the possession of firearms, both with intent and under suspicious circumstances.

Speaking afterwards, Detective Inspector David Lowans from the PSNI’s Terrorism Investigation Unit, said: “Today’s successful prosecution and sentencing demonstrates our commitment to pursue anyone involved in terrorism and also anyone involved in any aspect of a paramilitary-style attack.

“Detectives worked tirelessly to bring this case before the courts. There are many obvious challenges in relation to bringing counter terrorism cases to court, such as fear of victims and witnesses to speak out or give evidence, however we will always work to overcome these.

“Today’s result is testimony to the fact that we can still prosecute people involved in terrorism even when the victim does not want to give evidence.”