Price to be sentenced in New Year
Old Bailey bomber Marian ‘Price’ McGlinchey will have to wait until the New Year to discover whether or not she will be jailed for dissident terrorist activities.
McGlinchey appeared in the dock of Belfast Crown Court on Thursday on a charge of buying the mobile phone used by the Real IRA to claim responsibility for the murders of two British soldiers outside Massereene Army Barracks in March 2009.
The 59-year old, from Stockman’s Avenue in west Belfast, also admitted helping out at an IRA Easter commemoration in April 2011, during which she was pictured holding a statement for a masked man in a Londonderry cemetery.
Crown prosecutor Terence Mooney QC told the court: “The role of the defendant in each of these cases appears to be consistent with that of a person who disseminates propaganda on behalf of or in the promotion of dissident terrorist organisations.”
Defence barrister Frank O’Donoghue said his client has already served what in effect was a four year prison sentence after her licence was revoked by the Secretary of State in 2011.
Saying McGlinchey is “chronically, physically and it would seem mentally ill”, Mr O’Donoghue said her health would deteriorate further if she was sent back to prison, adding “justice can be served” with a suspended sentence.
Judge Gordon Kerr QC told McGlinchey he wanted time to reflect on the case and he would pass sentence on 7 January 2014.
Releasing her on continued bail, the Judge said she shouldn’t take this as an indication of the sentence he will impose in the New Year.
