The resident judge in Newtownards, the town at the centre of the “vicious, ongoing and deadly…drug turf war,” has issued a statement in open court ahead of bail applications for four alleged combatants.
“Let me get this off my chest,” District Judge Mark Hamill began, “I have significant concerns that there will be no return for trial before the end of 2023…the could languish in custody well into 2024.”
“There have been two attacks on the court building in Ards, the first a threat to kill a named individual embroiled in this feud and that was bad enough but as a judge sitting in Ards, I had the temerity to remark upon that first attack, describing the painting of a threat to kill on the wall of this court as an attack on the rule of law in Ards.
“It may well be that my remarks gave offence to some of the more sensitive souls involved in what the police have described as a drug turf war because following these remarks there was a second, more serious attack on this court.
“If I gave offence by saying that an attack on the court substantially upped the ante, I can only say I must be doing something right. For the avoidance of doubt, I wish to make it clear that I regard drug dealers as preying on the community so I hope that no drug dealer has been left unoffended.
“In the context of two attacks on the court, in the context of an ongoing feud between drug gangs as described by the police, it’s difficult to see how the charges before the court can be dealt with anywhere but in the Crown Court which takes me back to my concerns regarding the time it will take for any of these cases to reach the Crown Court.
“I have references from mothers and wives about the impact on families and I’m concerned about (it), so given those concerns, I will hear applications for bail,” concluded the judge.
A short time later, men allegedly on either side of the feud applied for bail - brothers Curtis (24) and Ryan Johnston (29) from the Weaver’s Grange faction and Samuel Coulter (56) and William McCormick (48).
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The Johnstons are charged with affray and assault of a man at Ards shopping centre and affray and making a threat to kill a second man in Donaghadee on 31 March this year.
Coulter, a former UDR solider, and McCormick are two of 14 defendants accused of affray and unlawful assembly on 6 April following what police have described as a “concerted show of strength” at Weavers Grange on 6 April after a crowd of up to 60 men entered the estate and using ladders and hammers, ripped South East Antrim UDA signage from gable walls of three houses.
Grating bail in the sum of £500, the judge also attached conditions to Curtis Johnston’s bail, including a residency order, a curfew, tagging, barring him from Ards and North Down, no contact with witnesses or co-accused.
Ryan Johnston was next and a prosecutor conceded that given Curtis Johnston was granted bail, he could be freed under the same conditions.
Moving on to the cases against Coulter and McCormick, the PPS lawyer conceded that with 14 defendants in that aspect of the feud “I would be surprised if the committal [to the crown court] was this side of Christmas given the number of defendants and the preparation of the papers.”
Coulter’s defence KC, John Larkin said that “in the past the police have liaised with Mr Coulter and he has been involved in a community anti drugs program” and the officer conceded “I don’t dispute that.”
Granting bail in the same terms as the Johnston’s, the judge warned that any defendant granted bail “better cling to bail conditions like limpets.”
