Four Co. Armagh men, including a father and son and an alleged riot “orchestrator” have appeared in court accused of involvement in what was described as premeditated, organised and sinister rioting.
Describing the incidents on August 23 in the Kilwilkie estate when police cane under attack with petrol bombs and vehicles were hijacked and set alight, District Judge Rosie Watters said they were clearly “premeditated, organised and very sinister and created a danger to members of the public and security forces.”
The four, who were refused bail, are:
• Robert Rooney (52), an unemployed labourer from Victoria Street in Lurgan, charged with rioting, making and throwing petrol bombs
• Gavin McKenna (36), a self employed plasterer from Victoria Gardens in Lurgan, charged with riot, making a petrol bomb, aid and abetting the throwing of a petrol bomb
• Mark Anthony Reynolds (46), Ennis Green, Lurgan, charged with riot, throwing and making a petrol bomb
• Niall Reynolds (29), from Woodside Green in Portadown, charged with riot, throwing and making a petrol bomb, attempting to damage a road sign and two counts of attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm on police officers.
A police constable said he believed he could connect all four men to their respective offences and described how police were “lured” towards an incident invoking a hijacking and a bomb hoax.
The officers were then attacked by a group of males who had used a ladder to climb onto the roof of a pensioners bungalow from where they launched petrol bombs.
The court heard that one of the incendiary devices, allegedly lobbed over a hedge by Niall Reynolds, struck a signpost and a that if it had not done so, it would have landed on the head of an officer.
Mark Reynolds, the court heard, is also alleged to be an “organised and instigator” of the rioting.
The rioting, which occurred as a group of alleged IRA terrorists were arrested and charged in an MI5 undercover operation, continued on into the evening during which time, both Asda and Tesco supermarkets had vehicles hijacked and set alight.
Peter Corrigan, a solicitor for the other of the men, labelled the CCTV evidence as “contentious,” declaring that “in order to refuse bail you must drive a coach and horses through the presumption of innocence.”
DJ Watters, at Craigavon Magistrates Court, sitting in Lisburn, refused to free them however, described the offences as “very, very serious in themselves.”