Accused admits helping IRA transport mortar

A 29-year-old man from Ballysodare in County Sligo has pleaded guilty before the Special Criminal Court to assisting an unlawful organisation by transporting a training mortar. Damhan McFadden admitted knowingly rendering assistance to the Irish Republican Army by transporting the device on 14 August 2016, contrary to the Offences Against the State Act 1939. McFadden had initially pleaded not guilty to a membership charge, but the State entered a nolle prosequi on that count following his guilty plea to the assistance charge. The three-judge court, presided over by Mr Justice Tony Hunt alongside Judge Sinéad Ní Chúlacháin and Judge Cormac Dunne, remanded him on continuing bail pending sentencing on 25 January. The trial of his former co-accused, Julian Flohr, also from Sligo, continues on a separate membership charge relating to the same date.