The details emerged during the trial of four men accused of charges linked to the dissident republican parade
PIPE bombs discovered in a cemetery after an Easter commemoration parade in Derry contained “ball bearings for extra shrapnel”, a court heard today.
The details emerged during the trial of four men accused of charges linked to the dissident republican parade in the city on Monday, April 10, 2023. Three of the defendants are from Derry: Thomas Ashe Mellon, 49, of Glendermott Road, Jason Lee Ceulemans, 53, of Creevagh Heights, Patrick Anthony Gallagher,33, of Raferty Close along with Stephen Martin Murney, 41, of Derrybeg Terrace in Newry, Co Down.
All four deny that they arranged a meeting in support of a proscribed organisation, namely the IRA, on dates between February 28, 2023 and April 11, 2023. They further deny a charge of addressing a meeting for the purpose of encouraging support for the IRA.
The non-jury Diplock-style trial at Belfast Crown Court is being presided over by Judge Gordon Kerr KC. It was the prosecution case that it was an unnotified parade of men dressed in military style clothing which left Creggan’s Central Drive on Easter Monday, April 10, 2023, to walk the half mile route to the City Cemetery.
Prosecutors stated Ceulemans, Murney and Gallagher played their own roles in the managing of the commemoration while Mellon did not attend the parade.
During the second day of the prosecution case, statements were read into the court record in relation to the discovery of four pipe bombs which were retrieved from a waste bin beside a toilet block in the City Cemetery near to where the Easter commemoration parade came to a halt at the republican plot. A statement was read on behalf of an Ammunition Technical Officer who was given the cipher ‘BU5513’ who attended the scene on Tuesday, April 11, 2023.
He said on that day he was attached to 321 Explosive Ordnance Division (EOD) and Search Squadron and was tasked to attend the cemetery in Derry after four viable pipe bombs were found. BU5513 stated: “My role was to make safe and recover the pipe bombs for forensic exploitation. A total of four pipe bombs were recovered in all.”
While ATO was at the cemetery, a second day of rioting erupted in the city with further petrol bombs, stones and bottles being thrown at police vehicles.
BU5513 added: “Due to the deteriorating public order situation on the ground the recovered pipe bombs were taken back to Maydown PSNI station for break down and forensic exploitation.”
A forensic scientist said in a statement that he subsequently examined all four recovered pipe bombs. He stated they were “copper pipes painted black” which each contained a length of fuse and “mixed small arms propellant, firework composition and ball bearings”.
He described them as “improvised explosive devices” and stated pipe bombs are “usually small, hand thrown or placed devices intended primarily as anti-personnel weapons. The addition of ball bearings are used in improvised explosive devices within Northern Ireland as additional shrapnel”.
At the time PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton described the discovery of the pipe bombs as a “sinister and worrying development”.
Mellon, Ceulemans, Murney and Gallagher were subsequently arrested for questioning by detectives from the PSNI’s Serious Crime Branch under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Murney’s phone was recovered and messages were found between him and Mellon surrounding his speech at the commemoration in the City Cemetery.
Murney sent the following: “Before the Maire Drumm quote…I have a message for the British occupiers, their paramilitary police and their entire establishment…So long as you continue to oppress us, you will meet with the enecapable (sic) consequences.”
Ceulemans sent Mellon a message stating: “I’ll have Murney’s speech done by tomorrow night and ready for you to bastardise.” Mellon replied with a thumbs up emoji.
When Mellon was asked by police if he assisted in drafting speeches for the Easter Monday commemoration, his solicitor provided a statement, stating: “I, Thomas Ashe Mellon, would like to make it clear that I absolutely deny any involvement in the offences with which I have been arrested for.”
The senior prosecutor said: “We say Mellon played a fundamental role in the organisation and arrangements of the meetings from the phone material. We further say that it is clear Mellon was influential in the preparation and management of the speeches. It is clear he had a key role in drafting and approving the speeches of Murney and Ceulemans.
“It is clear from the approved speech of Murney that Mellon knew this was to encourage support for the IRA or to further its activities.”
He added: “This was a highly choreographed event. It was staged and stylised and it involved planned violence. On one reasonable view from start to finish it was a planned propaganda exercise for the IRA.
“The fact that journalists were permitted to remain was to enable a demonstration of intent and a showing off that the IRA are in control of this area in Derry.”
At hearing.
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