The rules of a Stormont committee were subverted in 2015 to cause “political embarrassment” to former first minister Peter Robinson, a court has heard.
The trial of loyalist activist Jamie Bryson, former Sinn Féin MLA Daithí McKay and Thomas O’Hara on charges related to a committee hearing that examined the sale of the National Asset Management Agency’s (Nama) Northern Ireland assets got under way on Tuesday.
DUP chairman Lord Morrow was among the witnesses who gave evidence on the first day of the trial at Belfast Crown Court.
Mr McKay (43) of Loughan Road, Dunnamanagh, denies committing misconduct in public office.
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Mr Bryson (35) from Rosepark, Donaghadee, and Mr O’Hara (40) from Lisnahunshin Road, Cullybackey, both deny conspiring to commit misconduct in public office.
The charges relate to Bryson’s 2015 appearance before the Stormont committee, chaired by Mr McKay, which was investigating the sale of Nama’s Northern Ireland assets to a US investment fund.
A criminal investigation was launched after the publication of leaked Twitter messages between Mr Bryson, Mr McKay and the account of Mr O’Hara, who at the time was a Sinn Féin activist in north Antrim.
Mr McKay quit as an MLA within hours of the Twitter messages being published in August 2016.
The Stormont finance committee inquiry was set up in 2015 amid political controversy over the multimillion-euro sale of Nama’s property portfolio north of the Border.
Nama, the so-called bad bank created by the Irish government to deal with the toxic loans of bailed-out lenders during the economic crash, sold its 800 Northern Ireland-linked properties to investment fund Cerberus for £1.2 billion (€1.6 billion).
Giving evidence to the committee in 2015, Mr Bryson used Assembly privilege to name former DUP leader Mr Robinson as a beneficiary of the sale.
The then-first minister of Northern Ireland strongly rejected any suggestion he benefited from the deal. All other parties involved in the transaction also denied wrongdoing.
Opening the case on Tuesday, prosecuting barrister Toby Hedworth KC said it concerned a “successful attempt to subvert the rules of procedure of a Stormont committee”.
He said the purpose of this had been to cause “considerable political embarrassment” to Mr Robinson and others.
“It is the prosecution’s case that by engaging in this subterfuge to allow Mr Bryson to make allegations that he well knew did not come within the terms of reference of the committee, Daithí McKay, as a public office holder, was wilfully misconducting himself to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public trust in the office holder’s position and it was done without reasonable excuse or justification.
“Mr McKay had contrived how evidence would be given in public session when it should have been given in private session, and allowed it to happen when he had the knowledge of what was to be said.
“Via his agreement with Mr Bryson, there was a conspiracy to allow that to happen with Mr O’Hara being a vital and knowing cog in the wheel.”
The first witness in the trial was the Sammy Morrison, who at the time was the PA to TUV leader Jim Allister.
He told the court that in August 2016, he had received a phone call from Mr Bryson telling him he would forward emails containing Twitter messages between the loyalist activist and McKay which were going to be the basis of a story on the Nolan Show the following day.
Mr Morrison said the messages were then sent to him by Mr Bryson via emails and after reading some of them, he forwarded the messages to Mr Allister.
The witness said he had subsequently given permission for a PSNI officer to retrieve the emails from his computer.
He was asked if it was widely known that Mr Robinson was going to be named by Mr Bryson during his committee appearance.
Mr Morrison said: “I think everybody knew that when Jamie was coming to give evidence before the committee that he intended to name Mr Robinson.
“I don’t think that was limited to myself and Jim [Allister] because we had our meetings with Mr Bryson, I think that was common knowledge.
“Everybody was sitting watching the evidence waiting for that moment to arrive.”
Lord Morrow told the trial that he had written to the PSNI chief constable in August 2016 after allegations relating to Mr Bryson and Mr McKay were reported in the media.
He said he asked the police to consider if any criminal activity had taken place.
Lord Morrow was later asked if it was fair to say Stormont committees were “not too strict” on the application of terms of reference in its hearings.
He said: “Very often the strictness rests with the chairman … there were times I thought it could have been stricter.”
The non-jury trial resumes on Wednesday. – PA
