Noisy supporters cleared from Real IRA court case

Noisy supporters of five terrorist suspects facing explosive charges were cleared from a packed courtroom in Northern Ireland today.

Police escorted out relatives and friends of the four men and a woman accused of Real IRA membership amid tense scenes in Ballymena, Co Antrim.

After cheering and applause greeted their first appearance in the dock, magistrate Richard Wilson ordered them to leave.

He said: “People who are in court don’t know how to behave, everyone who was clapping, out.”

Lawyers for the accused resisted his ruling and following negotiations some family members were allowed to return to the special sitting of the town’s magistrates court.

All five face charges of possessing firebombs and membership of the Real IRA after three incendiary devices were discovered at a house in Ballymena on Saturday.

The accused, all from the town, were: Anthony Martin Lee, 29, an unemployed baker from Fisherwick Crescent; Pearse O’Neill, 22, unemployed, of Deramore Crescent; Christopher Smiley, 20, also unemployed from Dunclug Park; Liam Lyness, a 20-year-old butcher of Fisherwick Crescent; and Simone Sloan, 22, a dental nurse from Fisherwick Gardens.