Tyrone mother-of-three facing terrorist charges ‘is leading member of New IRA’, court told

​The allegation was made as Sharon Jordan mounted a fresh bid to be released from custody after previous attempts to secure bail were rejected.

Jordan, 48, of Cappagh Road, Dungannon, has been on remand in Hydebank prison since August 2020 charged with directing terrorism, belonging to a proscribed organisation, namely the IRA, and two counts of preparation of acts of terrorism.

The mother-of-three was one of ten people who were arrested as part of joint surveillance operation codenamed “Operation Arbacia” between the PSNI's Terrorism Investigation Unit and MI5 which involved the bugging of two properties in Tyrone and one in Scotland.

The case centres on audio and video recordings from properties in Sixmilecross and Omagh in February and July 2020.

A prosecution lawyer told the High Court in Belfast on Monday that Jordan had attended both properties and also spoke during the course of those meetings.

She said that during the meetings those present discussed targets, weaponry, finances and recruitment, along with forging international relations.

"There were only two females at these meetings, one being Mandy Duffy (aka Amanda McCabe) and the other one being this applicant, Mrs Jordan,'' the prosecutor told Mr Justice Colton.

Opposing the bail application, the prosecutor said there was a risk of flight, there was a risk of reoffending, and the defendant had a previous terrorist-related conviction.

"We say this shows that she is wedded to violence for her ideological means.''

The prosecutor pointed out that Mandy Duffy (52), of Ailsbury Gardens, Lurgan, Co Armagh, who faces the same charges as Jordan, was refused High Court bail in July this year.

She said Mr Justice O’Hara rejected Duffy's latest application for bail after highlighting her alleged “significant and sinister” role within the New IRA.

The prosecutor said Jordan was regarded as "one of the leading members of the New IRA leadership, she has a leadership role and she is on the army executive''.

"The prosecution have made the case abundantly clear up to this point that from the transcripts these are meetings of the army executive and those present are referred to as the 'middle leadership'.

"Two of those present were David Jordan and Kevin Barry Murphy. They are in high positions and they are on the army council. They are there to address the army executive on behalf of the army council.

"Everyone present at these meetings are high ranking members of the New IRA.''

Defence barrister Joe Brolly dismissed the secretly bugged meetings as no more than "talking shops''.

He said Jordan had been in custody for over three years and it would be at least 2025 before a trial could take place "by which time this applicant would have spent five years plus on remand awaiting trial''.

"This is a case, for the want of a better word, that stinks. There will be the most robust attack on this case because at the very heart of this case is the cheerleader, the orchestrator, the person who arranged the meetings, the person who drove people to the meetings, the person who set up the audio and video recording, and that is MI5 agent Denis McFadden.

"He sourced and paid for the airb&bs for the meetings, he rounded up all the participants for the meetings, and in his black Mercedes van he drove the attendees to the meetings and probably recorded everything being said in his van.

"McFadden, who had been infiltrating Saoradh marches for about five or six years, was a member of the Scottish Constabulary and he had Irish connections. He was spotted by someone at a march who said: 'That guy's a cop. I know him from Glasgow'.

"McFadden's role is the public domain and newspapers and media have talked about widely him being an MI5 agent.

"But he has been airbrushed from the (prosecution) papers essentially.''

As well as highlighting the delay in the case, the defence barrister said the prosecution faced evidential difficulties in proving its case against Jordan, and it wasn't a serious threat from a terrorist organisation as this did not bear scrutiny from the transcripts of the meetings, describing some of the conversations as "risible''.

The court heard the defendant's family and friends had raised a total of £15,000 in sureties to secure her release to live with her father if granted bail.

Mr Justice Colton said he had a lot of material to consider and would give his ruling on the bail application by the end of this week.