Robert O'Leary (42) of Clancy Road, Finglas, Dublin 11 had denied membership of an unlawful organisation, styling itself as the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, at a location within the State on August 20th, 2019.
Presiding judge Mr Justice Tony Hunt said on Monday that the Skoda Octavia car had been used to survey the area around the PSNI officer's home in Belfast and stopped nearby for three minutes while the device was planted under his car.
The judge said the accused man had invented a purchaser for the Skoda car - a mysterious man - to break the link between him and the Octavia. The defendant had bought, moved on and repaired the car in a "purposeful way" and to suggest that this was some kind of "spontaneous long-shot" was not borne out by the CCTV in the case, he added.
O'Leary, who described himself as a "bit of an Arthur Daly" [the lead character from the 1980s UK TV series 'Minder'] told detectives in his interviews that they were "barking up the wrong tree" and "never in a million years" would he source a car for use in an IRA operation.
In his opening address to the three-judge court last July, prosecution counsel Paul Greene SC said the charge related to the discovery of an "under-vehicle improvised explosive device" located beneath the car of a serving PSNI officer at Shandon Park Golf Club in east Belfast on June 1, 2019.
After the bomb was discovered, the New IRA claimed responsibility by issuing a statement through a journalist that read: "The IRA claims responsibility for the recent under-car booby-trap. We are confident that the device would have exploded if not for the terrain it travelled over. We were unlucky this time but we only need to be lucky once."
Southern-registered Skoda
Mr Greene said the PSNI had investigated the movements of the officer's car, a Cherokee jeep, around Belfast on the days previous to the discovery and contacted gardaí about the burning out of two cars nearby on June 1st. One of the two cars was a 2001 southern-registered Skoda Octavia.
The barrister said evidence would be given that the Octavia had previously ended up in the yard of O'Leary, a used-car dealer, in May of 2019, and that he was alleged to have altered the log book with an "untruthful address". Mr Greene said that the accused would say that he sold the car to a "stocky man, in his 60s" for €700.
During the trial, Mr Greene read from the statement of the PSNI officer, known as Officer One, who said that he would usually check underneath his Cherokee jeep but that because of builders at a neighbouring property he could not do it discreetly in the two mornings before the discovery. Officer One said he drove to the golf course at 7.40am on June 1st, played golf and had a coffee. When returning to his car he said he saw the car next to his reverse, clearing his view of his own vehicle, which allowed him to see the device underneath his car.
"With a clear view of the car, I saw what looked like a brown shoe-box under my jeep, in the shadow of the car and it appeared to be attached. It looked like a child's woodwork project. It looked crude, basic and I wondered if it was a wind-up," said Officer One.
Officer One realised it was a device and said he did not want to ring the PSNI for fear of setting it off by using his mobile. The PSNI were instead contacted via a landline at the pro-shop. A PSNI ordnance officer arrived at the scene and discovered 65 grams of TNT attached to an aluminium detonator inside a wooden box under the jeep. The device was made safe after a partial explosion occurred.
The convicted man was remanded on continuing bail until October 5th, when he will be sentenced.
