Dissident lone wolf was ‘dishonest and controlling’, appeal court told
A LONE wolf dissident republican attempting to overturn a conviction for trying to murder police officers has been exposed as dishonest, opportunistic and controlling, the Court of Appeal has heard.
Prosecutors claimed documents and consultation notes from Christine Connor’s former lawyers show she intended to plead guilty to terror plot charges.
But the 32-year-old north Belfast woman’s current legal representatives insisted her plea was equivocal and should never have been accepted at trial.
Reserving judgment on her appeal, Lord Justice Deeny said: “These are obviously matters of gravity, but also of some complexity.”
Connor is serving a 16-year sentence for a series of terrorist offences which allegedly involved posing online as a Swedish model to lure men into supporting the bids to kill.
Charges against her included a role in homemade bomb attacks on police patrols lured to the city’s Crumlin Road in May 2013.
She allegedly placed a hoax 999 call and claimed a woman living in the area was in danger.
Although the grenades detonated in the first attack noone was injured. Twelve days later one policeman was injured when more bombs were thrown.
Detectives built a case against her based on DNA on gloves found close to the scene and
CCTV footage.
They found a mobile phone, SIM cards and a laptop computer inside the mattress of a bed at her home.
Police said she had exploited two men to further her aims — both of whom later took their own lives.
Connor (below) was also jailed for possessing explosives with intent to endanger life and preparation of terrorist acts.
At a rearraignment as she was set to go on trial in May 2017 she replied to each charge: “I am not guilty, but on advice I will plead guilty.”
She is now attempting to have those convictions set aside on the basis the trial judge failed to intervene and examine ambiguities around those pleas. Giving evidence at her
appeal, she claimed to have acted under immense pressure from her former lawyers.
She alleged the issue of admitting the charges was first raised at a consultation on the day before her rearraignment, triggering underlying anxiety disorders.
Connor told the court that she was informed she should plead guilty, leaving her feeling that she was “drowning or suffocating”.
But her former barrister testified that she raised no issue about her legal advice at a meeting in the aftermath of the plea being entered. He told the three appeal judges she was only concerned with being wrongly depicted as a lone wolf terrorist.
A solicitor who represented her at the time also gave evidence that he understood she planned to plead guilty.
At one point in his testimo- ny Connor, appearing by prison video-link, shouted out to accuse him of lying.
Her current counsel, Kieran Vaughan QC, submitted that the convictions should be set aside due to the ambiguities involved.
But Ciaran Murphy QC, prosecuting, countered that Connor was advised from the start about the strength of the case against her.
“She is a person who throughout those discussions and throughout her role in the case has shown a considerable degree of control over those whom she instructs,” he said.
“This appeal is opportunistic and it has exposed her dishonesty in her approach to this court.”
Mr Murphy added: “She has not suffered any injustice and there’s adequate material for the court to confidently conclude that she did indeed plead guilty.”