Court told how man charged with terrorism offences linked to PSNI data leak wants to go to watch Celtic 'to relax'

Limavady Magistrates Court heard on Monday that the partner of Christopher O’Kane bought him the weekend trip to Glasgow for his 51st birthday earlier this month and as he suffers from anxiety and depression “his partner feels it would benefit his mental health to get away from a period of time”.

Prosecuting counsel Natalie Pinkerton revealed, however, that O’Kane has obtained tickets for the Celtic v Motherwell match that weekend and police were objecting on the basis that O’Kane has booked the same flight and the some hotel as Stephen Murney (39).

Murney, from Derrybeg Terrace in Newry is the national chairman of Saoradh and is on bail accused of taking part in an illegal prison protest parade outside HMP Maghaberry and also for encouraging and inciting support for a proscribed organisation, namely the IRA, on April 10 and making a speech on that date which encouraged support.

"Both men have a history of terrorist offences,” Ms Pinkerton told the court, adding that while there are currently no bail conditions to stop them contacting each other, there was no way to monitor existing conditions once O’Kane would leave Northern Ireland and having the two men together “the risk of reoffending can only be increased”.

O’Kane, from Main Street in Feeny, is accused of possessing articles, namely two mobile phones for the purposes of preparing terrorist acts and having information likely to be useful to terrorists - namely a spreadsheet of police officers’ names.

Previous courts have heard claims that O’Kane had a spreadsheet containing the names of thousands of police officers arising from a data breach when, under a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, police released the names of more than 10,000 staff and officers by mistake.

According to the police case, examinations established that the spreadsheet of officers' names had been sent to one of the devices by WhatsApp message and downloaded before the message was deleted.

With O'Kane described as someone highly efficient in technology who had allegedly tried to wipe his digital footprint, the earlier court heard that sections of the material sent to his phone were allegedly highlighted, including those featuring senior executive teams in the PSNI and officers based in the Londonderry area.

It was also claimed that two officers were highlighted - one who had multiple dealings with O'Kane, and another who was previously targeted in a dissident republican bomb attack.

Within hours of receiving the WhatsApp message, the accused allegedly accessed a website used to search for residential addresses.

According to the defence O’Kane is a "computer geek" who wrongly became a suspect because of his links with Irish republicanism in that he had worked as an IT consultant and acted as administrator for websites run by Irish republican group, Saoradh as well as the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association.

In court on Monday, defence solicitor Patrick McGurk conceded that “not for a moment am I suggesting that it is a coincidence” the two men were going to Glasgow on the same flight to stay at the same hotel but he emphasised there was nothing to stop the men contacting each other in Northern Ireland.

Deputy District Judge O’Hare told the defence it would have been worthwhile to check whether the police had any objections or concerns before the flights and hotel were booked.

Adjourning the application until Friday, the judge commented that with the trip away designed to help O’Kane’s mental health, “watching Celtic may not be so good for his anxiety”.