A SEARCH of a convicted dissident republican bomber's cell at Maghaberry jail uncovered the names of police officers and judges, a court has heard.
Belfast Crown Court was told that Connor Hughes (24), originally from Altan Close, Dunmurry, west Belfast, was eight months into an 11-year sentence when prison staff made the discovery.
Prosecuting barrister Ian Tannahill said officers "uncovered a list of names of 16 police officers and eight members of the judiciary''.
Mr Justice Treacy was told that the search was carried out on Hughes's cell at Roe House on October 2 2015.
"That's a part of the prison where Oglaigh na hEireaan (ONH) are held. The list was found among a number of documents, which included shopping lists for the prison tuck shop, inside an A4 pad.''
During police interviews Hughes did not answer any questions but he later pleaded guilty to possessing a document with information likely to be of use to terrorists.
Hughes was jailed for 11 years in February 2015 for possession of explosives with intent to endanger life or damage property.
PSNI officers had stopped him at the junction of the Glen Road and Shaws Road in west Belfast in March 2014 carrying a holdall containing "a number of wires and what was thought to be a firing pack".
He was wearing six top layers of clothing as well as a scarf and gloves.
The device was described as a blast-bomb type IED (improvised explosive device) which was "fully constructed and connected, except for the battery pack being attached at the command wire".
It was said to be "a roadside bomb which would have been deployed against soft-skin vehicles or security forces in the open."
Mr Tannahill said given Hughes's previous conviction, it was the Crown case that "information of this type would be useful to terrorists on the outside''.
He added: "It is right to say that this list related to the names of police officers and members of the judiciary and public buildings. There was no other sensitive information, like movements or that, contained in the list.
"It would certainly give cause for any person named on the list to have a level of concern and would clearly cause them concern to be told that their names were found in these circumstances.''
Mr Tannahill told the judge it was the prosecution view that the sentencing range would be between five to seven years in custody.
He pointed to a previous case of a British soldier who was jailed for four years in the 1990s for colluding with the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) in west Belfast by passing over the names of prominent republicans to target for murder.
Defence counsel Arthur Harvey said Hughes's offending was "at the lower level'' and the sentencing range in his view was "two to six years''.
He also rejected a prosecution assertion that he was a member of a terrorist organisation as "entirely speculative and it would be quite wrong for the court to take that as an aggravating factor in this case''.
Mr Harvey said Hughes had been charged with possessing the document and "there is no link between this possession and then something further''.
He told Mr Justice Treacy that his family had been concerned and "tried to change his views of the world and he went to Australia and spent some considerable time there''.
"However, the draw of home was much stronger and he has found himself in the current position."
Mr Justice Treacy said would pass sentence on Friday week.
