FIVE men who took part in three different riots across Belfast last year all walked free from court on Wednesday after one agreed to community service and the other four received suspended jail terms.
In the first of three separate cases to be dealt with at Belfast Crown Court, 26-year-old Roy Lillis agreed to complete 60 hours’ community service and spend two years on probation after he pleaded guilty to rioting against officers in the Oldpark area in the north of the city.
Prosecution lawyer David Russell described how large numbers of police had been in the area to deal with anticipated trouble, coming under attack from a 50-strong crowd in the early hours of July 12 who were throwing bricks, bottles and fireworks.
During the disturbances two officers recognised Lillis, from the Cromwell Road in Belfast, when he threw a steel sign and stones at a police vehicle, ripped its wing mirror off and tried, unsuccessfully, to gain access to it.
Among it all, said the lawyer, Lillis was struck with a baton round and when arrested and interviewed, confessed to rioting.
Although he walked free from court yesterday, Judge Gordon Kerr QC said it was a significant factor that he had already spent 18 months in jail while waiting for the case to be dealt with.
The next case involved three men who admitted involvement in trouble at the notorious flashpoint of the Ardoyne shopfronts on July 12.
Mr Russell said two of the men, 25-year-old Stephen King from Lagmore Heights and 19-year-old Paul Turner from Hazelwood Avenue, both Belfast, were each recorded on CCTV footage throwing missiles at the police during the disturbances.
While Turner was arrested at the scene, King was not arrested until last October when the officer who compiled all the footage recognised him when he entered the Boucher Road KFC fast food outlet for a meal.
Both men pleaded guilty to a single charge of rioting.
The third man, 42-year-old Liam Donnelly, lived locally to the rioting in Estorial Park and Mr Russell said an officer at the scene recognised him as being present, adding that while he was not seen throwing anything at police, he was “moving amongst the crowd” of rioters and helping in the uprooting of a steel fence which the rioters then used to protect themselves from police.
Arrested and interviewed, Donnelly later pleaded guilty to a count of intentionally encouraging or assisting in a riot.
While Turner and Donnelly each received nine-month jail terms, King was handed an 18-month term but all the sentences were suspended for two years by Judge Kerr.
The fifth man to be sentenced was 36-year-old Martin Peter Brown, from Laurelgrove Dale in Belfast.
He admitted to rioting and resisting police on July 2 last year after the annual Somme commemoration parade in east Belfast.
Mr Russell told the court that after the parade, two rival factions gathered at the junction of Mountpottinger and Albertbridge Roads – but that the Albertbridge crowd turned on the police.
Brown was arrested after two officers decided to effect an arrest on a group of around eight people who had become separated from the main rioting crowd, grabbing Brown after he slipped having thrown a missile. However, he “struggled violently, kicking out at police” as they arrested him.
In handing down the various sentences, Judge Kerr said he hoped they would “bring home” to each of the accused the fact they had admitted to serious offences, and warned them that any breaches or re-offending would result in them serving any new sentence consecutively to the sentences he gave them yesterday.