A former unionist mayor of Derry, Richard Dallas, was yesterday fined £175 and bound over to keep the peace for 12 months when he admitted four charges arising from street disturbances in the Waterside area of the city during last year's Drumcree stand-off.
At the same hearing before Derry Magistrates' Court, the deputy grandmaster of the Orange Order in the city, Douglas Caldwell, also pleaded guilty to a charge of obstructing traffic on July 9th last year. Caldwell admitted committing the offence at Drumahoe, on the outskirts of Derry, and he was bound over on his own bail of £250 to keep the peace for 12 months.
Dallas pleaded guilty to two charges of obstructing traffic at Drumahoe, and on the city's Craigavon Bridge, and also pleaded guilty to charges of allowing a car to be used to obstruct traffic at Drumahoe and of taking part in an illegal parade. He committed the four offences on July 9th-10th last year. He was bound over on his own bail of £500, plus two independent sureties of £250 each.
The guilty pleas and the sentences were announced in an almost empty courtroom. The Resident Magistrate, Mrs Bernadette Kelly, instructed the court clerk to announce a lunch adjournment from l p.m. to 2 p.m.
However, shortly after 1.30 p.m., in the absence of a dozen police witnesses and the media, the magistrate reconvened the hearing. The only people present along with the magistrate were a substitute court clerk, the two defendants, their legal representatives, a DPP legal representative, and a police officer.
Earlier at the same hearing, James Hamilton (19), unemployed, of Roulston Avenue, Derry, was convicted of blocking Craigavon Bridge on July 9th, 1996. He was fined £150.