A 19 year-old man is to be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to a number of paramilitary-related offences linked to a bomb hidden behind advertising hoarding in north Belfast.
Conal Corbett, with an address at Ross Court, in the west of the city, had previously denied a number of charges linked to the discovery of the bomb last year.
But at Belfast Crown Court his defence counsel Mark Mulholland QC made an application to have Corbett re-arraigned on four of the fives charges he faced.
Corbett pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing articles for terrorist-related purposes namely a mobile phone and top-up vouchers purchased days earlier.
He also admitted two charges of having a document or record likely to be of use in terrorism - handwritten instructions entitled, ''AK47 Instruction Safety Manual'' and ''the Underground AK47 Build Manual'' on operating in relation to the operation of an assault rifle.
The documents were found inside a doorbell ringer at his flat.
A fifth charge of having a document likely to be use to terrorists was left on the books.
Judge Gordon Kerr QC ordered pre-sentence reports to be prepared ahead of sentencing on August 9.
He released Corbett on continuing bail and warned him: "Do not take that as an indication of the sentence I might impose.''
No details were given in court about the nature of the charges against Corbett.
But at a High Court bail hearing last November, prosecutors said Corbett had been arrested as part of the overall investigation into a bomb discovered in May 2015 at the junction of the Crumlin Road and Brompton Park in north Belfast.
The remote-controlled bomb had been hidden in advertising hoarding at a bookmakers in the area.
Prosecution counsel told the bail hearing the device was located close to where police attend continuing daily protests at Twaddell Avenue over a banned Orange Order parade through Ardoyne.
The device was discovered after a priest was phoned and alerted to its presence.
At the time a PSNI commander claimed the device had been intended to kill or injure officers.
A closed network of approximately five phones were involved in the bomb plot, the court heard.
Corbett is alleged to have purchased a mobile and top-up vouchers suspected of being used for contact with the so-called bomb warning phone.
The court heard that if the device had detonated it would have had "devastating consequences''.
The rifle instructions were found at the defendant's then home in Flax Street, north Belfast, during a police search.
A prosecutor told the bail hearing: "He's a young man clearly influenced by Irish republicanism.
"The concern is that he has, to use a phrase used in England, been radicalised."
