A WATCHDOG hearing into Causeway Coast and Glens independent councillor Padraig McShane has been adjourned.
Mr McShane appeared before a closed hearing of the Local Government Commissioner for Standards on Wednesday.
It is understood the hearing into a complaint dating back to 2016 was put back to next week after a solicitor for Mr McShane made a brief submission.
The Irish News was not permitted to listen to proceedings despite requesting access.
Mr McShane has also been told he is not allowed to discuss the process while it is ongoing.
A former poll topper, the move to sanction Mr McShane, which could result in a suspension from the council, comes just three months before May’s local elections.
If the independent councillor is suspended he will be absent from the Causeway Coast and Glens chamber at a time when key issues linked to a 2019 audit office land deal report he helped initiate are dealt with.
In July 2017, Mr McShane was given a suspended sentence for assaulting a PSNI officer and other offences at an Orange Order parade in Ballycastle a year earlier after a confrontation with loyalist bandsmen.
In 2018, convictions for assaulting police and organising an un-notified protest were overturned. However, a conviction for disorderly behaviour was upheld on appeal.
It is understood a complaint was made to the Commissioner for Standards by former DUP councillor John Finlay, who has since died, in the days following the Ballycastle incident.
Mr McShane has been brought before the commissioner for an alleged breach of paragraph 4.2 of the code of conduct for councillors, which deals with conduct that brings the position of councillor or their local authority into “disrepute”.
Earlier this week The Irish News revealed that bugs were planted in rooms used by by Causeway Coast and Glens council officials last year.
It is understood at least one recorded conversation refers to Mr McShane and the watchdog.
When asked if the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman, which includes the Commissioner for Standards, was aware of the recordings or claims about them, no response was received.
Mr McShane stood down as a Causeway Coast and Glens councillor in May 2019 but was co-opted back into the local authority in October that year.
Last year an audit office report found that two land deals agreed by the council may not have been lawful.
Mr McShane and TUV leader Jim Allister had separately asked the audit office to examine the council's role in the deals.
The independent councillor also raised his concerns directly with the Department for Communities, which ordered the audit in November 2020.
The Local Government Commissioner for Standards was contacted.
