A BELFAST man has been cleared of terrorist charges arising from an M15 bugging operation in a park in Lurgan.
Alex McCrory - along with co-accused Colin Duffy and Henry Fitzsimons - has been at the centre of a trial which started in March 2019.
Today, McCrory (61) was found not guilty on five charges, whilst the trial against 55-year old Duffy and Fitzsimons (55) will continue.
The charges arose following a gun attack on a police convoy in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast on December 5 2013. The following day, security services secretly recorded three men - who the Crown and PSNI say were Duffy, McCrory and Fitzsimons - discussing the shooting in a park in Lurgan.
All three were subsequently charged with - and denied - preparing and directing terrorism, and membership or professing to be members of the IRA.
Fitzsimons, from Dunmore Mews in Belfast and McCrory, from Sliabh Dubh View in the city, were also charged with and denied attempting to murder police in the convoy, and possessing the two AK47 assault rifles and ammunition used in the attack.
At the conclusion of the Crown case, legal teams for all three men launched 'no case to answer' applications in a bid to have the charges against the trio thrown out.
This application followed a previous ruling made in September 2022 when Mr Justice O'Hara excluded a portion of the Crown's evidence.
This evidence regarded the attribution of words on police transcripts which officers said were spoken by the three accused but which was deemed "fundamentally flawed" and excluded by the trial judge.
The three accused were back at Belfast Crown Court on Friday where Mr Justice O'Hara ruled on 'no case to answer' applications and acquitted McCrory.
He said he had carefully considered all the evidence - including the audio secretly recorded in Lurgan Park, which he said was "entirely authentic" and which recorded men discussing "what is clearly terrorist activity". He added that for the purposes of this ruling, he had also considered other evidence presented by the Crown in the "circumstantial case".
Regarding the case against McCrory, Mr Justice O'Hara pointed to no evidence suggesting he was in Lurgan on the day of the recording - including a lack of visual identification.
He added: "Having listened to the audio recording again, I have concluded that I just cannot make out with confident finding there is any reference to Mr McCrory or to his name in that audio.
"In his case and his case alone, I find that the exclusion of the attribution evidence has had a fatal affect at this stage in the prosecution case.
"Accordingly, I accept the submission that Mr McCrory has no case to answer and I find him not guilty of the charges against him."
Addressing the bid to have the case against Duffy - whose address was given as HMP Maghaberry - dismissed, Mr Justice O'Hara rejected it and said: "I am satisfied that he has a case to answer on all charges."
The judge said that on the audio the name Colin and Colly is "repeatedly referenced as being a participant in the conversation", adding he was also visually identified on a video recording.
Concerning Fitzsimons, Mr Justice O'Hara said his name could be made out on the audio and there was also evidence indicating his car and mobile phone were in Lurgan on December 6 2013.
The case has been re-listed to April 28.