Monitoring concerns

A solicitor who represented Colin at the time of his arrest and during his detention in Antrim holding center, has said police were unable to assure him that his conversation with Colin would not be monitored.The claim was made by Patrick Vernon in court on Wednesday.

As a result of this, he advised Colin not to answer any questions during police interviews. Mr Vernon told Antrim Crown Court on Wednesday:

"We were not in a position to answer any questions because of my inability to advise Mr Duffy given the failure of the police to confirm that the interview was not being monitored."

The defence team are seeking a ruling to exclude Colin's interviews as evidence so no inference can be drawn from his silence.

Mr Vernon said police at Antrim police station failed to assure him that his consultation with his client would not be monitored.

He said this concerned him so he advised Mr Duffy to deny involvement in the attack, deny membership of any organisation and not to answer any questions during police interviews.

However, a prosecution barrister, Paul Ramsey, said that Mr Vernon had reiterated several times that no evidence had been put to his client.  He also said that if the solicitor had these concerns they had not been noted anywhere on the custody record.  He also asked why concerns about monitoring had not been on the record during interviews.

Mr Vernon said he made police fully aware of his position prior to interviews starting and that he had not seen a need to reiterate it.

Regarding the monitoring Mr Vernon stated:  "I had made it clear to them (police) that I was not happy with their assurances so they were aware of my concerns about the question of monitoring."