Tag: Law

Prison spying ‘exposed 30 years ago’

Seán O’Brien: ‘I was instructed to record meetings between certain IRA prisoners and their solicitors’ COLLINS PHOTO AGENCY

A former prisoner officer says he told the Department of Justice almost 30 years ago that inmates’ meetings with their lawyers were being secretly recorded in Portlaoise prison.

Seán O’Brien says he was taken aback when justice minister Charlie Flanagan expressed concern on Friday about a report from Patricia Gilheaney, the inspector of prisons, of an investigation she conducted into claims by a serving officer that conversations between prisoners and solicitors had been monitored. The report is being considered by Séamus Woulfe, the attorney-general.

“I know it happened because I was one of the officers who recorded them,” said O’Brien. “I was instructed to record meetings between certain IRA prisoners and their solicitors. I had to listen through the wall in the reception area next to where the legal meetings took place.

“One time, I remember another officer putting a glass to the wall to enhance the audio of the legal visit.

“We wrote down what we heard on ‘a half-sheet’ — an official form that was about A4 size. Then we’d hand it over to [the authorities].”

O’Brien, from Clara, Co Offaly, said he attended a meeting with a senior official in the Department of Justice on June 14, 1988, and told him about the recordings. He claims to have spoken “numerous times about it” with Flanagan, a local TD. Their last conversation, according to O’Brien, was in December 2014 when Flanagan was the minister for foreign affairs.

Flanagan’s spokeswoman said the minister has known O’Brien for more than 30 years. “He believes that any issues raised by Mr O’Brien with him were in his capacity as a constituency TD and were, the minister believes, dealt with appropriately.”

O’Brien said he also discussed the issue with Enda Kenny when he was the taoiseach, and it was referred to an independent review mechanism set up by Frances Fitzgerald, then the justice minister. O’Brien’s claims were not referred onward for further investigation.

O’Brien, 59, was dismissed on health grounds from the Irish Prison Service in 1989, 12 months after he had pursued Patrick McVeigh, an IRA prisoner, and stopped him escaping.

Kevin Winters, O’Brien’s solicitor, said: “We are instructed to consider legal proceedings on his behalf in relation to his treatment in response to what he was saying, in particular about the issue of surveillance. We will be writing to the minister this week and the specific nature of the legal action will be dictated by the response.”

With many thanks to: The Irish Times and Justine McCarthy for the original story

 

 

PSNI ‘have put life of youth worker at risk’ !!!

A YOUTH worker has accused the PSNI/RUC of putting his life at risk after saying he “may be a member of a paramilitary organisation”. North Belfast man Sean Montgomery said police made the claim after he applied to Access NI to be vetted to work with young people.

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Access NI carries out background checks on people hoping to work in particular fields, including for criminal records. The agency, which is managed by the Department of Justice (what fucking justice), works closely with the PSNI/RUC. Mr Montgomery beleives an 18-month delay in issuing a certificate to him could put a recent job offer at risk. The cross-community youth worker has vowed to take legal action over the claims contained in two letters sent to him by the PSNI/RUC last month. Mr Montgomery said the letters, which were contained in the same envelpoe but signed by different people, were posted to his home by recorded delivery. One claimed that “police hold information which indicates that Mr Montgomery may be a member of a paramilitary organisation”. The second letter said he is “suspected to be involved in drugs”. He denies both claims.

Mr Monntgomery served a paramilitary sentence for possession of weapons in the 1990s and is a former member of Shame Fein. He left the party in 2005 over its stance in policing. Mr Montgomery said he has made no secret to his opposition to the PSNI/RUC, and he refuses to be involved in projects that engage with the force, but he challenged police to back up their claims. “This puts my life and livlihood and that of my family, in danger,” he said. “If I am a drug dealer or involved at present in republican paramilitary activity, why am I not arrested?” In the past Mr Montgomery has worked closely with Co-operation Ireland and the centre for conflict research. Co-operation Ireland chief executive Peter Sheridan, who is a former member of the PSNI/RUC, said Mr Montgomery should be issued with a certificate by Access NI. “It’s important when we are trying to get people jobs that all the statutory agencies ensure their systems are sufficiently swift that allow that to happen and don’t prevent people trying to move on,” he said. Mr Sheridan also said that the youth worker has “done a lot of good work in the area” in his field. A spokesman for the PSNI/RUC said it “does not discuss the details of vetting applications”. A DOJ spokesperson said all applications go through “a formal process”. Mr Montgomert’s solicitor Michael Brentnall said his client has “no other choice but to issue High Court proceedings aganst the PSNI/RUC and Access NI in order to compel the disclosure of a certificate”.

With many thanks to: Connla Young, The Irish News.

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This lady needs legal advice our help – PLEASE IF ABLE TO HELP PLEASE CONTACT ME !!

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Anna MacIntyre

This is a sworn affidavit by a solicitor and it was dismissed as HEARSAY along with all the evidence on this page. We now have to wait 4 years for an appeal to the supreme court in Ireland. This is not a joke and if you would not mind posting this page to anyone such as media, politicians etc that might be able to help it would be much appreciated.

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UTV Live – McGurk’s anger

English: Plaque commemorating the victims of t...

Families of victims of the McGurk’s bar bombing say they’ve been left with no option but to take legal action to get access to a report about the atrocity.

http://www.u.tv/utvplayer/video/152689/127630/f842af53-3752-493a-b2fb-df8e07ef25c3
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PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT OUT AND SIGN THE PETITION FOR THE REPUTATION OF MICHAEL CAMPBELL

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Mary Larkin K > Repatriate Michael Campbell Campaign

Please help Repatriate Michael Campbell every signature helps to pave his way home to Ireland…………Please sign, post on your site, forward to others……. YOU do make a difference http://www.change.org/petitions/bring-him-home-support-the-repatriation-of-michael-campbell-to-ireland

Mary Larkin.

The conditions Michael is being held under is a complete breach of his human rights under international law !!!

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300 GAGGING ORDERS SILENCE PUBLIC-SECTOR WORKERS SINCE 2009 !

‘It is a matter that the NI executive needs to address in terms of accountability – Kieran Bannon.

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THREE hundred so-called gagging orders have been used to silence public-sector workers – the majority former police officers – since 2009. The orders can be used to prevent staff speaking publicly to the press about their former employer.

Also known as confidentiality clauses, they are usally agreed when an employee is made redundent or leaves an employer following a workplace issue or disagreement. More than 230 police officers and 50 staff members at the Stormont executive agreed to confidentiality clauses. The clauses can be used in settlement agreements to stop industrial tribunal cases being heard and can cost the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds. In March the British government banned gagging orders for NHS employees after it emerged that more than £18 million had been spent on silencing 600 staff. The issue has caused uproar at Westminster, with communities secretary Eric Pickles warning against using “under-the-counter pay-offs to silence departing staff”.

Civil service union Nipsa expressed concerns over public funds being used “simply to silence individuals”. Kieran Bannon, assistant general secretary of Nipsa, said that confidentiality clauses can “undermine the principles of accountability and propriety”. “It is a matter that the NI executive needs to address in terms of accountability, firstly in relation to the use of public funds but equally the accountability of public-sector employers for their actions,” he said. A total of 236 PSNI officers agreed to confidentiality clauses as part of employment tribunal settlements. Almost 200 of these were part of a class action settled earlier this year, according to a freedom of information request submitted by  The Irish News. The Department for Social Development (DSD) accounted for the vast majority of the confidentiality clauses used in the executive, with 39 imposed since 2009.

Five staff members in the Department of Agriclture and Rural Development agreed to confidentiality clauses as part of compromise agreements. The Department of Health also used confidentiality clauses in two out-of-court settlements relating to industrial tribunal cases. Other public bodies also revealed some employees agreed to gagging orders over the past four years. Eight assembly staff members agreed to confidentiality clauses. None of the cases prevented employees from whistleblowing. A total of 16 Western Health and Social Care Trust employees and one ambulance service staff member agreed to confidentiality clauses since 2009. One Belfast trust employee agreed to a confidentiality clause as part of the termination arrangement. The trust said the clause was mutually agreed and phrased to “protect both the employer and employee”, with no specific clauses in relation to the press. According to employment lewyers, most compromise agreements include confidentiality clauses. They can be used to bar employees from talking publicly or to the press about their former employer of the circumstances under which they left. Mr Bannon said confidentiality clauses usually form part of compromise agreements and are used in tribunal settlements to stop cases being heard. “Nipsa would have concern if public funds were used simply to silence individuals,” he said. “The use of confidentiality clauses means the general workforce and the public are not aware of the actions of the employer and in a case involving public-sector staff it is even more important that the employer is held to account for its actions given the potential impact on public funds.” No figures were available to determine how much was spent in the north’s staff settlements that used confidentiality clauses. A DSD spokesman said : “We are not in a position to make an informed comment how this department’s figures compare to others. DSD is, however, the largest of the Northern Ireland Civil Service departments.”

With many thanks to : Brendan Hughes, Irish News.

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PC ACCUSED OF POLICE STATION ASSAULT

A Metropolitan Police officer has been charged with aassaulting a person at a North London police station.

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PC Rohan Scarlett, 46, who is based in Lewishim, South-East London, has been charged with assault and beating. The alleged incident is said to heve taken place in the rear yard of Islington police station on 20 February. PC Scarlett has been suspended and is due at Highbury Corner Magisrrates Court on 28 May.

POLICE ‘TRIED TO SABOTAGE’ APPEAL IN CONSTABLE MURDER CASE

” Two police officers called at the house of this wwitness on whose fresh evidence we rely…. it appears they forced their way into the house and proceeded to warn him that if he went to court he would be discredited ” – Barry Macdonald QC.

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POLICE have made an apparent attempt to sabotage appeals by two men convicted of murdering Constable Stephen Carroll, a court heard yesterday. A new witness in the case of John Paul Wotton and Brendan McConville was arrested last week and held for two days before being released without charge in a bid to pressure him into withdrawing his evidence, it was claimed.

Senior judges were told officers had forced their way into his home and warned him he would be discredited if he went to court. Yesterday the planned five-day hearing of the appeal by the pair found guilty of the killing was adjourned because of uncertainty over the potential fresh evidence. Defence lawyers said they would lodge a complaint with the police oombudsman’s office. Constable Carroll was ambushed and shot dead as he responded to an emergency call at Lismore Manor in Craigavon in March 2009. McConville (41), of Glenholme Avenue in the town, is serving at least a 25-year sentence for the murder. Wotton (22), of Collingdale, Lurgan, received a minimum 14-year term. Dressed in dark suits and wearing shirts and ties, both men were led handcuffed into a packed Court of Appeal for the planned opening of their cchallenge.

Family, friends and supporters, including Paddy Hill of the Birmingham Six and Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four (pictured above), gathered in the public gallery a few feet away from the murdered officer’s wife Kate Carroll. They heard prosecution counsel Ciaran Murphy QC seek an adjournment because of the new developments. He said an arrest had been made last week as part of a surveillance operation. “There are a number of lines of inquiry that are not yet complete,” he said. Two lever-arch files of new material have emerged and include the contents of 11 interviews. Mr Murphy indicated that ongoing police inquires could take several weeks. McConville’s barrister Barry Macdonald QC stressed that the prosecution case was based entirely on circumstantial evidence, primarily from a man identified only as witness M who claimed to have seen McConville in the area at the time of the killing. Earlier this month a relative of witness M who did not testify at the trial gave an affidavit branding him a compulsive liar, the court heard. Mr Macdonald said the affidavit stated “that he was known to the family as a Walter Mitty, that made up stories, that he had a fertile imagination and you could not believe anything he said “. According to the relative, witness M could not have taken the route he claimed on the night of the murder because his partner was not welcome in his home.

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Mr Macdonald told the court : “Then last Monday two police officers called at the house of this witness on whose fresh evidence we rely. “On my instructions it appears they forced their way into the house and proceeded to warn him that if he went to court he would be discredited.” The three appeal judges, Lord Chief Justice Declan Morgan and Lords Justices Higgins and Coghlin, were informed that letters of complaint were also to be sent to the Public Prosecution Service and the Law Society amid concerns that covert surveillance might have been used against the witness, his solicitor or both. Mr Macdonald described the application to adjourn the hearing as “suspicious to say the least”. Defence teams would have no faith in police carrying out an investigation into the issues raised because of the apparent conflict of interest, the barrister said. It was alleged that officers had been able to “arrest this witness and to subject him to pressure – we say improper pressure – with a view to securing the withdrawal of his evedence and therefore undermining the appeal”. Mr Macdonald called for a more independent oversight process. “I’m simply registering strong objection to the conduct that appears to have taken place here and flagging up our deep concerns at the prospect that police should be given more time to sabotage this appeal and put their case togeather,” he said. Following discussions Sir Declan confirmed that the hearing would be postponed until October.

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Solicitors seek ‘independent’ investigators

SOLICITORS acting for Brendan McConville will ask a court to appoint “independent” investigators after the PSNI/RUC was accused of trying to “sabotage” his appeal. Kevin Winters last night said he would ask the Court of Appeal to allow the Criminal Cases Review Commission to oversee the PSNI/RUC investigation into a new witness in the case just days after that witness signed an affidavit for the defence team. This arrest was made after a surveillance operation that is understood to have focused on several people. It is beleived to be the first time a court in the North of Ireland will be asked to remove control of an investigation from the PSNI/RUC and hand it to the commission. Set up in 1997 the commission reviews possible miscarriages of justice.

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Defence solicitors say it can oversee police investigations in certain circumstances. Mr Winters emphasised the need for an independant body to look at the matter. The police ombudsman’s office has also asked to probe the circumstances of the witness’s arrest. “We have concerns and they were highlighted in court about the manner in which the police have approached this and have written to the police ombudsman and in the strongest terms voiced our grave concerns,” Mr Winters said. The lawyer said he had also written to the Law Society and had asked the Public Prosecution Service to confirm it had offered direction or advice to the PSNI/RUC in relation to the arrest of witness M’s relative. A PSNI/RUC spokesman said : “Police inquiries into this matter are continuing and as such it would be inappropriate to comment any further.”

With many thanks to : Connia Young, Irish News.

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REPUBLICAN UNCLE’S BOMB CHARGES DROPPED AFTER A YEAR ON REMAND !!!

” Why don’t people ask  ” why are repubican’s Internment by remand iintroduced by England and approved by the Stormount assembly !

IN OCTOBER last year Emmet McElhatton’s uncle Kevin Murphy, was released from prison where he had been on remand for a year. Charges linking him to a bomb-making factory were dropped. During a bail hearing in September 2011 police described him as a member of the Real IRA‘s army council and the group’s leader in East Tyrone.

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Charges that stick to you for life and that you are unable to sue the PSNI/RUC for faulse allegations because they are the so-called rule of law. They can hold you on faluse allegations for one year then drop all the charges and you legally don’t have a leg to stand on as ” they are the so-called fucking law ” lol. In an inerveiew with The Irish News, Mr Murphy denied being a member of any repubilcan organisaton. In 2004 he was one of four men cleared of conspiring to kill police and British soilders and of possecession of a rocket launcher near Coalisaland RUC station.

Solicitors for the four said the men had been lured to the area two years previosly by alleged informer Gareth O’Conner. Mr McElhatton said the republican Damien McLaughlin had also been mentioned to him by people he beleived were MI5/MI6 officers. The Irish News reported last week that Secretary of State Theresa Villers revoked McLaughlin’s early-release licence amid claims he ” poses a risk of harm to the publc “. The 36-year-old is on remand in Magheberry Prison accused of supplying a car used by a group calling itself ” the IRA ” during the shooting a prison officer David Black in November. In 2011 he was released from prison after serving part of a four-and-a-half-year sentence linked to the discovery of guns in his car in 2009.

With many thanks to : Connia Young, Irish News.

RAPIST TRIES TO SHUT DOWN ANTI-ABUSE FACEBOOK SITE

  1. Blacks Road sex attacker who phoned victims ‘ mum to taunt her

  2. Quinn wants to block site from ” harrassing, pestering, annoying or molesting ” him

  3. Now forced out of loyalist villunabler r suspicious object left at his home.

ONE OF THE North of Ireland‘s most notorious sex offenders is taking legal action to prevent an anti-abuse campaigner ” annoying ” him. Michael Sean Quinn was sentenced to eight years in prison in June 2007 after being convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl and later phoning his victim’s mother to tell het , ” I enjoyed raping your girl.”

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The West Belfast man now taking legal action in a bid to shut down a Facebook page which campaigns against sex offenders. The Irish News has also learned that Quinn, who has been living in Newbuildings, Co Derry, fled the loyalist area earlier this month after a suspicious object was left at the house he was staying in. Quinn (24), originally from Twinbrook, on the outskirts of West Belfast, is understood to have been living with his girlfriend in the loyalist village for several months. His solicitors earlier this month lodged an appliction seeking an injunction against Joe McCloskey,pictured right, the man operating the Facebook page and social media giant itself. The aapplication was lodged in the High Court in Belfast on March 12 but was adjourned by Mr Justice Gillen, is seeking an interim injunction preventing either party ” harassing, pestering, annoying or molesting ” Quinn by ” distributing, broadcasting, or transmitting ” information about him on  Facebook. Quinn also wants Facebook to hand over all information it holds about the site’s author.

Joe McCloskey

During the brutal attack on Blacks Road, Belfast, Quinn’s cousin Terence McKenna used an iron bar to threaten three teenage boys who were with the victim as she was being threatened with a screwdriver and raped at a garage forecourt. Quinn was released from prison in August 2009 having served half his term. He was classed as a level three offender, the highest category, and deemed at risk of reoffending. Quinn then raped his victim a second time a short time lateriI in the grounds of a nearby golf course. After carrying out the crime Quinn used the teenage victims mobile phone to ring her mother and gloat : ” I enjoyed raping your girl.” In December 2009 his release licence was suspended for two months after he breached the rules of the hostel where he was staying. The following year he received a two-year sentence for burglary and breaching a court-imposed sexual offences prevention order. In June last year he was back in the dock again and sentenced to seven weeks for again breaching the court order. However, the serial offender walked free from court due to time already served.

It is the second time this month a notorious sex offender has attempted to close down Facebook pages operated by by Mr McCloskey. Earlier this month The Irish News revealed that a child sex offender, known only as XY after he was granted anonymity by the court, launched legal action against  Mr  McCloskey after details about the paedoophile were posred on a ‘ name-and-shame ‘ Facbook page called ‘Keeping our kids safe from predators’. In November last year Mr McCloskey was involved in a landmark case when the court ordered Facebook to close the page down. In an interveiw with The Irish News earlier this month Mr McCloskey said he has ” no regreats ” about posting details of convicted sex offenders on Facebook. Mr McCloskey’s solicitor Brian Stelfox says his client will fight the attempts to silence him. ” He is saying he will strenuously contest the appliction as he feels he [Quinn] should be legitimately named and shamed,” he said. ” The client feels given what he [Quinn] has been convicted of, his stance is entirely legitmate.” A spokesman for Facebook declined to comment.

Sex offender forced to flee loyalist area

CONCONVICTED West Belfast double rapist Michael Sean Quinn has been forced to flee the stunch loyalist enclacve where he has been living. The Irish News can reveal. The sex offender fled Newbuildings, near Derry, earlier this month after a suspicuious object was left at the house where he was staying.

Michael Sean Quinn

Quinn, originally from Twinbrook, on the outskirts of West Belfast, is understood to have been living in the loyalist village area for a number of months. The alert at the Gortin Meadows house where he was staying was sparked after a suspsicious object was discovered on March 1. A number of homes in the area were evacuated during a the following security alert and the object was later declared a hoax.Quinn has been unable  to return to his Twinbrook home since his 2007 conviction for raping a 15-year-old girl twice. In 2009 dissident republican group Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH) shot thr vicious rapist’s 17-year-old brother to ” act as a warning ” to him not to return to his Twinbrook home. 

At the time the organisation said the shooting of the teenager was a direct warning to his older brother. ” Should he attempt to return to his former home let there be no doubt what the consequences wll be,” the republican group said. ! If ONH volenteers cross paths with Michael Quinn the punishment he will receve will be far greater than any we have delt out to date.  We have shown that we can enter his home at any time so he is well awahere should he return we will be paying a return visit.” In 2009 the defendent rapist dismissed the threat. ” You’ll not see me in Twinbrook anyway,” he said. ” I don’t care. Let them shoot me if they want. I’m not afraid of them. The y’re wnasters.”

With many thanks to : Connla Young, Irish News.

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