The Five Demands

Ex-PSNI passed details to inmates (BBC News Northern Ireland)
A former policeman who has been jailed handed out personal details of up to 87 police officers to other inmates.
Kyle Martin Jones is accused of handing over the lists inside HMP Maghaberry, Co Antrim, during the last three months in exchange for coffee, cigarettes and food.
The ex-officer from Ballyclare, Co Antrim appeared on Friday at Craigavon Magistrates’ Court charged under the Terrorism Act with collecting information that could be used by terrorists.
The court heard that the documents contained extensive details about the accused’s former colleagues in the PSNI, including names, family relationships, vehicles they drove and lifestyle and personal habits. Both serving and retired officers featured on the lists.
During police interviews Jones admitted he had written the lists, but said it was for “therapeutic purposes” and he had no sinister intent.
He said he also compiled a list containing details of 51 people he knew while he was at university.
The 27-year-old, who served in the force from 2005 to 2010, had previously been on at Maghaberry on robbery charges before he was bailed late last month.
The documents were uncovered when a fellow inmate contacted police and asked for a meeting.
When an officer met the prisoner inside Maghaberry earlier this week, he produced a list with the details of 42 officers on it, which he claimed had been written by Jones.
An investigating detective told the court what the prisoner had said to his colleague.
“He said he had been given this document by a fellow inmate in prison who was a former police officer and he believed this list wasn’t a one-off and others had been given to other inmates,” he said.
The detective also told the court that a handwriting expert matched the lists to notes made in Jones’s old police notebooks.
On Wednesday, the accused was arrested and taken to Antrim Serious Crime Suite for questioning, where the detective told the court Jones had initially answered “no comment” to all the questions.
The officer said Jones then consulted his solicitor and at the next interview produced two pre-prepared statements, in which Jones confessed to writing the lists.
Jones’s lawyer, Andrew Morairty said his client was seeking psychiatric treatment and the lists were a form of writing therapy he had undertaken in jail to stave off depression.
“There’s nothing sinister about these, your worship,” he said.
“It was a mental exercise that Mr Jones was undertaking to, if I can put it bluntly, keep his sanity.”
Mr Moriarty said certain details contained in the lists, including the officers’ favourite drinks, claims about extra-marital affairs and if they were attractive, were unlikely to be of use to terrorists.
He accused the inmate who handed the first list to the police was an orderly in Maghaberry, who could have taken the list from his client’s cell.
Mr Moriarty said that prisoner’s criminal past was linked to fraud and may have wanted to strike a deal for reduced prison terms in exchange for bringing forth the documents.
Judge White rejected the lawyer’s application for bail, after Mr Moriarty claimed the former policeman may be assaulted again if he was sent back to prison.
The judge acknowledged that writing was a form of therapy used by inmates inside prison, but he added:
“Writing about police officers does not seem to fall into that category.”
Mr White said he doubted Jones’s claims.
“There is enough evidence to give me great scepticism about his account,” he said.
He remanded Jones in custody to appear before court via video-link at the end of the month.