Judge bars cop’s evidence in Clansman-One Don trial

Chief Justice Bryan Sykes yesterday ruled against allowing evidence from a police witness that one of the alleged Clansman-One Don Gang members had been supplying him with intelligence since 2014.

The shocking claim, which was brought to the prosecution's attention yesterday by the cop, who is a corporal, was not documented in his witness statement nor was it ever shared with the case's lead investigator. The prosecutor told Sykes that it was during an interview yesterday morning with the cop that he was told that defendant Owen 'Mickey' Ormsby was a "police informant".

"He would pass on information about the members, incidents and background information on the gang," the prosecutor relayed while conceding that the officer had omitted that detail from his witness statement. The prosecutor said he was also told by the police witness that the investigator never asked him about the gang.

But Sykes, who described the information as "quite surprising", ruled that he could not allow the evidence as there was no reasonable justification why the officer had not brought the information to the investigator's attention or noted it in his statement. Prior to his decision, he grilled the witness about why he did neither.

The corporal, who was a member of a special operations squad, then explained that he told his team leader about Ormsby and what he had shared but did not check to ensure that the information was passed on to the investigator. He also told the court that even though he arrested Ormbsy, he was not aware that he was the person he was going to apprehend until he saw him. The cop also admitted that after the arrest, he did not think to clue in the investigator.

"So all this time it didn't occur to you to tell Mr [.....] that this young man has been a gold mine of information?" the judge asked. "The case was moving so fast," the cop replied.

He also reported that he was kept in the dark about what was happening in the investigation and had got information via rumours. According to the witness, he found out in late 2020 that the witness had been charged. The trial continues today in the Home Circuit Court.