Omagh man pleads guilty to PSNI car bomb offences

AN OMAGH man has pleaded guilty to two charges connected to a car bomb attack on a police officer in the Castlederg area in 2008.

Gavin Coyle (45), from Mullaghmore Drive in Omagh, appeared in front of Belfast Crown Court today (Wednesday).

Coyle admitted to being a member of a proscribed organisation, namely the ‘Irish Republican Army’, on a date unknown between May 9 and 13, 2008, and a new charge of providing a car knowing it would be used for the purposes of terrorism.

The police officer, who was off-duty at the time of the attack, was making his way to work at Spamount, near Castlederg on May 12, 2008. A bomb that was placed under the officer’s car then exploded.

A member of the public dragged the officer out of the wreckage. He sustained leg injuries in the attack.

Coyle will face two other charges – of attempted murder and causing an explosion likely to endanger life on May 12, 2008.

A prosecuting barrister told Judge Patricia Smyth that there would be no action at this stage about those two charges, but that they were unlikely to inconvenience the court.

Coyle was granted bail and will reappear before Belfast Crown Court on June 16 for a plea hearing.