A Sinn Féin candidate in the forthcoming council elections once told police he would “shoot them with a machine gun”.
Ruaídhrí Lyttle is hoping to secure a place on Fermanagh and Omagh District Council in the May 18 poll.
He announced his plan to run in the election just days after dissident republicans tried to kill senior PSNI officer John Caldwell in Omagh.
But it has emerged that the 28-year-old was convicted for disorderly behaviour over an incident in 2017 during which he verbally abused police officers.
Among the comments, the prospective Sinn Féin representative made to the PSNI was that he would “shoot them with a machine-gun”.
Mr Lyttle was fined £100 for the offence, which district judge Bernie Kelly described as “despicable”.
It emerged during the hearing that the defendant had received two previous cautions from police.
The council election candidate told a reporter from the Sunday World that his behaviour was “wrong”.
“I apologised in court a number of years ago for my behaviour and accept fully that my actions were wrong,” he said.
“My role in this incident remains a matter of deep regret.”
Mr Lyttle, who is standing in the Killyclogher and Gortin DEA, announced his candidacy in February.
Sinn Féin MLA Declan McAleer welcomed the announcement, saying: “No better person than Ruaídhrí for this role.”
West Tyrone MP Órfhlaith Begley said: “A hard-working an dedicated candidate you will make an excellent candidate.
Last month, the DUP was criticised for standing a candidate who had left a trail of offensive comments on social media.
Tyler Hoey, who is set to contest the election in the Bannside area of Ballymena, liked a tweet glorifying the 1993 Greysteel massacre in which eight people were killed and 19 injured.
The candidate also made several other references to the UDA in his historic tweets. He also mocked the deaths of 39 Vietnamese immigrants found in the back of a lorry driven by a Co Armagh man.
