SINN Fein Foyle MLA Raymond McCartney says he ”does not know” Thomas O’Hara who is at the centre of ‘coaching’ a loyalist witness to a Stormont committee.
Mr O’Hara, a Sinn Féin party member, is alleged to have been in contact with loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson via direct messages on Twitter ahead of giving evidence to Stormont’s NAMA inquiry last September.
It is claimed O’Hara was put in touch with Bryson by Sinn Fein MLA Daithi McKay who was chairing the Stormont committee investigating the NAMA sale.
The revelations were made in The Irish News this morning after it received the twitter messages.
Mr McCartney told the BBC’s Talkback programe that he doesn’t recall ever having met Mr O’Hara “to the best of my knowledge”.
He adds that Daithí McKay acted on his own volition and “made an error of judgement”.
Mr McKay has today formally resigned as an MLA as the allegations engulfed him.
He has also been suspended from the party which says it had “no knowledge”’ of the back door channel to Bryson via McKay and O’Hara.
The scandal has been a serious embarrassment for Sinn Fein and its political opponents in Stormont say McKay could not have acted as a “lone wolf” and must have cleared his plan with senior party figures.
Unionist politicians have now called for a police investigation into the allegations claiming McKay’s conduct could be a malfeasance in public office offence.
Sinn Fein Foyle MLA and deputy first minister Martin McGuinness said he “had no knowledge” of McKay’s back door channel with Jamie Bryson.
