Plastic explosives found in searches into Derry into New IRA
Gerard Anthony Kelly, 48, and from Victoria Place, and his 26-year-old daughter Shannon Kelly, 26, from Creevagh Heights in Creggan, appeared at Derry Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday after they were arrested following an intelligence-led PSNI investigation into the activities of the New IRA in Derry last week.
The charges are a result of planned searches in Derry city by detectives from the PSNI’s Terrorism Investigation Unit.
A machine pistol, handguns, grenades, ammunition and plastic explosives were all found during a series of co-ordinated searches.
Gerard Kelly faced four charges which included possession of explosives with intent to endanger life on Thursday, September 7.
These explosives include two Soviet grenade heads, plastic explosives and two detonators.
He is also charged with having explosives under suspicious circumstances and having a gun with intent and a quantity of ammunition.
He is further accused of having the gun and ammunition in suspicious circumstances.
Shannon Kelly faces the same four charges.
Dealing with the case of Shannon Kelly, a detective constable said a blue bin was discovered in her back garden during police searches last week.
Detonators for explosives found in Derry searches
Asked if there had been significant public disorder at the time the search was being carried out, the officer said: “There were at least 16 officers injured, many of whom remain on the sick, and quite a few vehicles damaged in the disorder which went on for a few hours.”
The detective constable said Shannon Kelly told police that her father had put the bag in her bin and she had believed contained drugs.
He said he believed the items had been placed in the bin around half an hour before they were discovered by police.
A defence solicitor made an application for bail, saying Shannon Kelly appeared to have been “badly used by other more sinister people”.
He added: “She was presented with a fait accompli whenever these items arrived at her house.
“She had absolutely zero interest in any of this and now finds herself in this nightmarish situation.”
When charged with the offences, Ms Kelly replied: “I didn’t do nothing.”
District Judge Barney McElholm granted her bail on condition that she observes a curfew, wears a tag, reports to police once a week and has no contact with certain members of her family.
Turning to the case of her father, the detective constable said it appeared that Gerard Kelly was the “means of moving the munitions”.
Mr Kelly had allegedly brought the bag to the house and denied knowing the contents of what was in it.
Firearm recovered from searches in Derry’s Creggan estate this afternoon by police
The officer added that it was the police assessment that the weapons were linked to the New IRA and that Gerard Kelly had been acting as a “facilitator”.
A defence lawyer said his client accepts he took the bag to the house but regrets that he got his daughter into trouble and had attempted to hand himself into police before he was arrested.
Gerard Kelly was refused bail and remanded in custody to Maghaberry Prison.
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