TWO LOYALIST flute band members, one of them a civilian working for the police, who gathered information on suspected republicans were each given 12-month jail terms yesterday.
The sentence handed down to police data inputter Aaron Hill(24) was suspended for two years by Belfast Crown Court judge Mr Justice McLaughlin.
His friend Darren Leslie Richardson (31) was jailed for a year but will soon be released as he has already served the equivalent term while on remand.
Sentencing the pair for collecting information likely to be useful to terrorists, the judge told them he believed he was taking a “very considerable risk” but added that he was convinced his decisions were correct.
He had heard that Richardson had been working for Wright Bus in Ballymena when his office was searched and colleagues uncovered a number of documents containing car registrations, names and addresses in April 2007.
Prosecuting QC Ciaran Murphy said 40 live 9mm Luger bullets were also found and that when his BMW car was searched, further documents with names and addresses was uncovered.
Hill, from Neillsbrook Park in Randalstown, pleaded guilty to collecting information which would be useful to terrorists and to charges of misconduct in a public office.
Richardson, from the Moneynick Road in Randalstown, maintained his innocence until the day his trial was due to begin last month before he pleaded guilty to four charges of collecting information relating to the names and addresses of a total of 62 car owners which was “of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”.