Accused filmed by ‘paedophile hunters’ struggling to find bail address, court told

A COLERAINE man who was filmed by so-called paedophile hunters has been granted bail but is struggling to find an address because of the nature of the court charges he faces, a court heard yesterday.

Harold Burke (right), of Quilly Road, is charged with two counts of attempted sexual communication with a child and two of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

The 59-year-old is also accused of possessing 370 rounds of .22 ammunition in suspicious circumstances. The charges relate to July and August last year.

He appeared at Coleraine Magistrates Court via video link from Maghaberry Prison where he has been on remand.

A defence solicitor said the defendant had been granted High Court bail but given the nature of the alleged offences getting an address was still being looked at.

Meanwhile, the solicitor said the PSNI was still awaiting material regarding “additional allegations from one of these hunter groups based in Dublin”.

At a previous court hearing, the defence solicitor said one of the police objections to bail for Burke was in relation to con- cerns for the “safety” of the defendant in the community.

The lawyer told the court Burke had “never received a threat” and the only difficulty he encountered was last year when a “hunter group attended and videoed him at his home”.

In court yesterday, a prosecuting lawyer said the investigating officer had indicated they should soon be submitting the majority of files surrounding the charges.

Burke was remanded back into custody pending a bail address being found and the case was adjourned to March.