The trial of four west Belfast men accused of being dissident IRA members secretly recorded by security services agents has ended.
Two of the men, Mark Gerard Heaney (52) of Lagmore Glen, and 62-year-old Kevin O'Neill from Coolnasilla Park South, were found 'not guilty' of membership by direction of Judge Patricia Smyth when no further evidence was offered against them.
Judge Smyth, also agreed to leave the IRA charge 'on the books and not proceeded with' in the case of two others, 41-year-old Robert Warnock O'Neill of Bingnian Drive and Daniel Joseph Anthony McClean (52) of Lagmore Gardens.
However, O'Neill and McClean stand to be sentenced next week after they pleaded guilty to a new tenth count of assaulting an unknown man and to collecting information useful to terrorists on suspected drug dealers, both in February 2014.
Their non-jury trial, which began last November, heard claims the men, who originally faced a total of nine charges, were bugged by MI5 agents as they discussed dissident IRA tactics in a house in the Aspen Walk area of Twinbrook.
In the four covert recordings, made between December 2013 and May the following year, it was said they were captured talking about kneecappings, punishment beatings and forcing people, including "a wee lad" to flee the country or face the consequences.
In one recording, it was claimed, a suspected drug dealer was threatened with his "legs being taken off with a shotgun" if he did not co-operate in providing information on other alleged dealers.
MI5 agents, screened from the court, told of planting and retrieving the bugs, but refused to elaborate on their workings, even to acknowledge they were covert devices, claiming it could "damage national security" if more were said.
The prosecution claimed that the evidence of an expert on voice recognition, who analysed the bugged recordings would provide very strong support in the case against Kevin O'Neill, and strong support in the cases of Heaney and Robert O'Neill and moderate to strong support in identifying McClean.
However, today the prosecution revealed that they were no longer relying upon one of the covert voice recordings and went on to offer "no further evidence" in respect of four of the charges faced separately Heaney and Robert O'Neill relating to the possession of firearms, both with intent and under suspicious circumstances.
It had been mooted that the court might hear the evidence of the voice recognition professor, but following a number of adjournments and the guilty pleas of Robert O'Neill and McClean, the prosecution said their pleas were "accepted in satisfaction of this indictment".
