Omagh man takes legal action to stop police analysing his phone

AN Omagh man accused of buying parts for a hoax bomb left outside a police station is taking High Court action in a bid to stop detectives extracting messages and photos from his mobile phone.

Sean Pearson claims the plans to obtain any information stored on devices seized during a raid on his home breaches rights to privacy.

The 30-year-old is currently on bail charged with possessing articles for use in terrorism in connection with the security alert in Omagh.

Masked men claiming to be IRA held a motorist at gunpoint and forced them to drive the item to the town’s PSNI station on May 6 last year.

They told the victim a timer had already been set and that he had 20 minutes to take it to the barracks, previous courts heard.

A fake device recovered from the boot of the car after it was abandoned at the police base contained a gas canister, 24-hour mechanical timer switch, adhesive tape and fireworks in a plastic tube.

Pearson, of Culmore Park in Omagh, was arrested and charged on the basis of CCTV evidence obtained from two shops.

He allegedly bought the gas canister and timer switch used in the device from a Home Bargains store in Strabane, and the tape from a branch of B&M Bargains in Omagh.

Pearson has not been forensically linked to the hoax bomb and denies obtaining anything used in its construction.

In April this year the PSNI seized electronic devices during a search of his home carried out under the Terrorism Act.

His legal team claim police failed to provide any information on what that investigation was about.

Judicial review proceedings have now been launched in an attempt to prevent the force from carrying out Mobile Phone Extraction (MPE) on the seized devices.

Lawyers for Pearson contend that the plans amount to a disproportionate interference with privacy entitlements protected by the European Convention on Human Rights.

In an affidavit submitted as part of the challenge, he insisted that the contents of the phone are personal.

“They record my private communications, photographs of myself with family and friends as well as my own internet searches,” Pearson stated.

“These are private matters, and I object to the proposed performance of mobile phone extraction.

“I dispute that the phone obtains material which shows criminal conduct by me or any others.”

Following a brief High Court hearing, proceedings were adjourned until next month to give the PSNI a chance to assess if any further information can be disclosed about the investigation.

Pearson’s solicitor, Owen Beattie, said later, “Throughout the country homes are searched, and property is seized under the Terrorism Act.

“This challenge has brought a spotlight to the use of these police powers, within a wider human rights context. We look forward to the full hearing of this case.”