A prisoner held in Northern Ireland’s top security jail has been charged with the attempted murder of a Catholic police officer seven years ago.
Gavin Coyle was also accused in court of membership of the dissident IRA. The charges against the 38-year-old from Omagh, Co Tyrone, relate to a bomb attack on a police recruit’s car near the border with the Irish Republic in May 2008.
A bomb exploded underneath the officer’s car in Castlederg, Co Fermanagh, as the police officer was driving to work. He suffered severe leg injuries but survived after a member of the public pulled him out of the burning car.
Coyle’s address was given as Maghaberry prison outside Belfast where he is already serving a 10-year sentence for paramilitary activities.
Coyle appeared on Thursday at Strabane magistrates court where a detective said evidence from secret recordings of an alleged dissident republican meeting had now given the Police Service of Northern Ireland sufficient grounds to charge him.
Coyle’s solicitor, Niall Murphy, questioned whether the man recorded at the meeting was his client, and that the recording highlighted no specific details about the attack, the name of the police officer or the location.
Murphy said there was no fibre or DNA evidence linking his client to the bomb attack. The defence solicitor applied for bail for his client, which the judge refused. Coyle was remanded to appear before the court via videolink from prison on 31 December.
In January 2014, Coyle was given a 10-year sentence after admitting to possessing arms and explosives as well as being a member of the New IRA, after a weapons haul was found in April 2011.
