Seven charged over dissident republican activity

A dissident republican plot to target judges and police officers in Northern Ireland has been exposed by a covert MI5 operation, a court has heard.

Listening devices placed in a house in Newry, Co Down at the direction of the security services has provided the evidence to charge seven men who appeared in court in the city accused of a range of terrorist offences, a police officer told the judge.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) detective sergeant said“somewhere close to 70 hours” of material gathered in the property in Ardcarn Park over a three-month period from August included a series of meetings involving “leading key figures of a proscribed organisation”.