Co. Derry pensioner accused of having cache of weaponry almost 50 years ago ordered to stand

A Co. Derry pensioner has been ordered to stand trial accused of having a cache of weaponry uncovered almost 50 years ago during an investigation into a police officer’s murder.

Appearing in the dock of Limavady Magistrates Court, sitting in Coleraine on Wednesday, 71-year-old Gerard Joseph Kelly confirmed he was aware of the four charges against him and that he did not object to the Preliminary Enquiry, the legal step by which any criminal case is elevated to the Crown Court.

Kelly, from O’Cahan Place in Dungiven, is accused of having explosives and firearms with intent to endanger life and under suspicious circumstances “at Brockaghboy, Garvagh” on February 16, 1976.

The charges relating to explosives accuse the pensioner of having “two electric detonators and two improvised pressure mat switches” while the charges in relation to firearms allege that he had “two Walther pistols, one Browning pistol, a 0.22 rifle No C21075, a Remington shotgun and a quantity of ammunition.”

None of the alleged background facts giving rise to the charges were opened in court today (wed) but during an extradition hearing in Dublin High Court in relation to another man accused of the same charges, it was claimed the weapons were uncovered during an investigation into the murder of 25-year-old RUC Constable Robert John McPherson and the attempted murder of his colleague on July 26, 1975.

The extradition hearing in relation to 73-year-old Seamus Christopher O'Kane, from Scalestown in Dunshaughlin, heard how a military observation team identified suspicious activity at the Garvagh farmhouse which at the time was owned by a retired farmer.

According to O’Kane’s extradition warrant, officers observed three males approaching the farmhouse and that one of the males was carrying a backpack. Officers called to the farmhouse and the householder told officers he was alone in the property.

The warrant continues that during searches of the property and surrounding outhouses explosive substances, firearms and ammunition were recovered including two electric detonators, two improvised pressure mat switches, two Walther pistols, one Browning pistol, a 0.22 rifle, a Remington shotgun and 104 rounds of ammunition.

"Seamus Christopher O'Kane and two other males were found hiding in an upstairs bedroom in the property and were subsequently arrested," the warrant reads.

The warrant further states that forensic examinations confirmed that the electric detonators recovered from the property at Brockaghboy, Garvagh were explosive blasting accessories, used to initiate charges of high explosive.

The pressure mat switches were of a type used in the electrical firing circuits of "booby-trap" explosive devices. Pressure on the mat by an unsuspecting person completed the electrical circuit and fired the detonator, thereby initiating an explosive charge.

The Dublin court also heard a claim that one of the firearms found during the Garvagh operation had been taken from Const. McPherson when he was gunned down the previous year.

Const. McPherson, who was from Leck, outside Coleraine, was shot dead in an INLA ambush in Dungiven Main Street around midday on July 26, 1975.

He was hit by a single shot when he and a colleague were ambushed as they investigated a report of a suspect car and while, tragically, the 25-year-old victim died at the scene, his fellow officer was hit multiple times but fortunately survived.

In Limavady Magistrates Court on Wednesday a prosecuting lawyer submitted there was a Prima facie case against Kelly, a submission which was conceded by defence solicitor Don Mahoney.

The court clerk told Kelly that although not obliged to he had the right to comment on the charges and to call evidence on his own behalf but he declined to exercise those rights.

As the case is a Diplock, no jury case, District Judge Francis Rafferty returned the case to be heard at Belfast Crown Court and although he did not set a date for the arraignment, he freed Kelly on his own bail of £500.