UVF-linked Pride of Ardoyne Flute Band – parade breaches members sentenced

FIVE MEMBERS of the UVF-linked Pride of Ardoyne Flute Band have escaped prison sentences this week despite being found guilty of consistently breaching Parades Commission determinations at the Ardoyne interface between February and May 2014.

Finding the band members guilty in July 2015, Judge Amanda Henderson dismissed their 'see no evil, hear no evil' defence and told them during sentencing on 25 August that they “flagrantly” flouted the law over a four-month period as they played music at the loyalist 'Camp Twaddell' set up to force an Orange Order march through Ardoyne.

The five – David Johnstone (23), from Westway Crescent; Gary Edwin Wells (24), from Loughview Close; James Cosby (26), from Glenbryn Road; David John Murphy (38), from Berwick Road and Robert Hayes Spence (57), from Alliance Avenue – admitted that they played music but claimed they did not see the signs attached to PSNI Land Rovers nor hear loudhailer cautions.

Four of the defendants – Johnstone, Wells, Murphy and Spence – were given six-month jail terms suspended for three years. Cosby was given a four-month sentence also suspended for three years.

Since unionists linked to the Orange Order, the UDA and UVF with support from the main unionist parties the UUP and DUP set up the loyalist camp across from Ardoyne in 2013, tension in the area has been constant.

Loyalists also gather at the interface on a nightly basis and on occasion the tension has erupted into violence.

After this year's Twelfth parade when the Orange Order was barred from passing through Ardoyne on its return journey, loyalist mobs attacked the PSNI at Twaddell Avenue.

Leading Orangeman John Aughey was charged with two counts of attempted murder this year after he drove his car into nationalists gathered on the Crumlin Road, seriously injuring a 16-year-old girl.

The cost of policing the loyalist protest is estimated to have risen to £330,000 per month.