The son of murdered INLA leader Dominic McGlinchey has been cleared of four charges relating to making and possessing a bomb.
Declan McGlinchey (33) from Gulladuff Road, Bellaghy, Co Derry was formally acquitted of the charges by Belfast Crown Court today.
Mr Justice Gillen directed a not guilty verdict after the prosecution said it was offering no evidence.
Mr McGlinchey faced a total of four explosives charges. He was charged with two counts of making a command wire improvised explosive device and two of possessing the device with intent and under suspicious circumstances between January 17th and July 3rd, 2006.
Mr McGlinchy had gone to court to apply for a variation in his bail conditions and was told the Public Prosecution Service had decided not to proceed with the case. A Derry court was told during a hearing in 2006 that his DNA was found on an improvised bomb discovered by the security forces in a garage yard in Bellaghy.
Prosecution counsel Ciaran Murphy told the court that the PPS keeps all cases “under continuing review” as decisions to prosecute are based “on the available evidence”.
“In preparation for trial, consultations took place with the forensic witness,” he said. “As a result of this consultation, and having carefully considered the evidence as it presently stands, together with the advice of counsel, the PPS has concluded that the evidence is not sufficient to connect the accused to the device which is the subject of this indictment,” said Mr Murphy.
He added that the “evidential test for prosecution is no longer met. In those circumstances I am instructed to offer no evidence”.
Mr McGlinchey's parents, Dominic and Mary McGlinchey, were both murdered in what is believed to have been an INLA feud. Both had been former senior members of the INLA.