PRISON authorities were right to deny a convicted robber's bid to be transferred onto a republican jail wing due to a direct threat to his life, a High Court judge has ruled.
Austin Creggan argued that as a perceived Continuity IRA member detaining him within an integrated regime exposed him to serious risk of harm.
He issued judicial review proceedings against the secretary of state over being refused admission to the separated landing at Maghaberry. But Mr Justice Treacy dismissed the challenge based on his failure to meet criteria that such a move would not prejudice his safety.
"In light of the information available of a direct threat to the applicant's life should he be transferred, this was... something which the proposed respondent could not lawfully ignore," he said.
Creggan (49) and formerly of Park View in Pomeroy, Dungannon, is serving a six-year sentence for robbing a service station at gunpoint.
He had been held on remand on the integrated landings before being moved with others to the Care and Supervision Unit (CSU) as a result of staging a dirty protest.
In court Creggan's lawyers said a known loyalist was allowed to be seated close to him during a family visit, allegedly in breach of security and his human rights.
The Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) stressed the CSU transfer was not for his own protection, adding that there was no record of him being subjected to any form of sectarian harassment.
Correspondence disclosed during the hearing said Creggan did not meet an eligibility requirement for a switch to Roe House where republican prisoners are held. Despite not seeing the material on which this assessment was made, he questioned the bona fides of the asserted risk.
But an independent scrutiny by the Prisoner Ombudsman concluded that the correct decision had been made.
Ruling that the authorities had actually vindicated Creggan's human rights by adhering to the strict criteria, Mr Justice Treacy said: "The decision was not even arguably irrational or in breach of convention rights."
* JUDICAL REVIEW: Austin Creggan