A district judge has said that he believes dissident republican terrorist groups were recruiting “more and more people” with no criminal records into their ranks.
Judge Barney McElholm made the comment yesterday at the Magistrates Court in Derry when a PSNI officer linked Joseph Hugh Allen (29), an unemployed joiner from Broadway in the Creggan area of the city, to a bomb attack on the home of retired GP Dr Keith Munro, who was a police forensic medical officer, and on the home of a serving police officer in the village of Claudy last September.
Refusing bail, Judge McElholm said because of fears of further offending and because of the seriousness of the charge, he was remanding Mr Allen into custody for a video-link hearing on September 13th.