Derry New IRA boss Thomas Ashe Mellon
Thomas Ashe Mellon (44), of Rathmore Road in the city is due before Derry Magistrates’ Court for a first appearance this morning to face a total of three charges.
Police believe Mellon is the ‘Officer Commanding’ of the New IRA’s Derry brigade whose members shot dead journalist Lyra McKee in the city on April 18, 2019.
The first charge Mellon faces states that on dates between “18th day of July 2019 and the 30th day of August 2020, being a person to whom sections 44 and 45 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 applied, in contravention of requirements of section 49(1) of the said Act, failed without reasonable excuse, to re-notify to the Police within the period of one year after last notification the information mentioned in section 47(2), contrary to Section 54(1)(a) of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008”.
Mellon faces two similar charges.
Also to appear before the same court will be William Martin McDonnell (34), of Balbane Pass in the city.
He is to face two counts of failing to notify police under the Counter Terrorism Act.
In 2015, McDonnell and Mellon were jailed for a total of 40 months for having a handwritten note which they attempted to smuggle into the dissident republican wing of Maghaberry prison.
Also in court today will be Jason Lee Anna Ceulemans (48), of Long Tower Court in the city, who is also charged with with one notification breach under the Counter Terrorism Act.
In 2014, he was jailed for ten years after he pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing an explosive device to enable some other person to endanger life or cause serious injury to property.
He was one of three men stopped two years earlier by police in the city with an armour piercing bomb in a car.
