Loyalist Mark Harbinson has been fined £350 for having a stolen Sinn Féin election poster, destined for an 11th night bonfire.
With a jury sworn in at Craigavon Crown Court, Harbinson (54) entered a guilty plea to handling the stolen SF poster on a date unknown between April 1 and July 12, 2019.
Prosecuting counsel Nicola Auret told the court that police on patrol in Stoneyford spotted Harbinson up a ladder “at a bonfire beacon” holding a SF election poster for Gary McCleave in his left hand.
“The poster had been stolen when it had been on a lamp post for the council elections back in May that year,” said the lawyer.
She outlined how police initially drove on but returned a few minutes later and arrested Harbinson who denied being the person up the ladder.
In 2011, Harbinson, from the Sheepwalk Road in Stoneyford, was convicted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl he met when he was a leading member of the Pride of the Village Flute Band in Stoneyford and served two years in jail.
A once prominent member of the Orange Order, and former member of the UDR, he rose to prominence during the Drumcree dispute in Portadown.
Following his conviction he was expelled from the Orange Order and in 2012 he failed to have the conviction overturned shouting "no surrender" in a courtroom outburst as the judgment was delivered.
In court today defence counsel Craig Patton conceded that Harbinson’s past offences “don’t cover him in glory,” submitting it was a “lapse of judgment”.
Imposing a £350 fine and £15 offenders levy, Judge Patrick Lynch QC told Harbinson it was obvious he didn’t have the poster “out of some interest in political memorabilia but to make a political statement at this bonfire on this evening.”
Harbinson thanked the judge and apologised to him.