Jamie Bryson denies leaking secret messages to newspaper

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson has denied leaking secret messages he exchanged with a Sinn Féin politician to a newspaper to try to cause political embarrassment.

At his trial at Belfast Crown Court, he said he did not know how private messages on Twitter with Sinn Féin's Daithí McKay in 2015 ended up being published in The Irish News a year later.

Mr Bryson also rejected the accusation that he broke the law in his dealings with Mr McKay who was the chair of the finance committee at Stormont at the time.

"It was entirely the cut and thrust of politics," he said.

"There are many things that go on in the world of politics, day in day out, that would make your hair curl, but they're not criminal offences."

Mr Bryson, 35, from Rosepark, Donaghadee denies a charge of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office in September 2015.

Mr McKay, 43, from Loughan Road, Dunnamanagh, denies a charge of misconduct in public office.

The Crown's case is that Mr McKay and Mr Bryson manipulated how evidence was presented to a committee meeting on 23 September 2015.

At the committee, Mr Bryson spoke about how Northern Ireland property loans were handled by the National Asset Management Agency, known as Nama. He made an allegation about the then leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Peter Robinson, which was later denied and described by the politician as "scurrilous".

The prosecution say Mr Bryson and Mr McKay were involved in an attempt to subvert the rules of the committee, in order to cause "considerable political embarrassment" to a number of people including Mr Robinson.

At the centre of the case are screenshots of direct messages said to have been exchanged on Twitter between Mr Bryson and Mr McKay before the committee meeting in question in 2015.

News of their existence first emerged almost a year later when the Irish News published a story by journalist Allison Morris claiming that Sinn Féin had "coached" Mr Bryson before the committee hearing.

Prosecution barrister Toby Hedworth KC pressed Mr Bryson on how the Irish News learned of the Twitter messages which were detailed in the newspaper article.

Mr Bryson responded: "I did not provide those messages to Allison Morris."

He insisted there was nothing untoward about his contact with Stormont politicians, on all sides, on issues of interest.

He told the court it was "standard political procedure".

Mr McKay was a high-profile member of Sinn Féin in 2015.

Mr Bryson has admitted sending him private messages but denied making any deals with him.

The court was told that in a police interview during the investigation into the case, Mr Bryson described the screenshots of the messages as "potentially doctored images on social media".

In court, Mr Bryson said he accepted that he exchanged messages, the screenshots at the centre of the case were "not a complete transcript, not a complete picture".

Another man, who was a Sinn Féin member at the time, is also on trial.

Thomas O'Hara, 41, from Lisnahunshin Road, Cullybackey, faces a charge of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office, which he denies.

The Crown alleges he, like Mr McKay, was involved in an exchange of messages with Mr Bryson in the run up to the committee meeting.

Mr Bryson told the court that Mr McKay then put him in contact with Mr O'Hara.

It was suggested that Mr O'Hara's role as a Sinn Féin worker meant he operated as a "back channel" to Mr McKay, but Mr Bryson rejected this.

The non-jury trial, in front of Judge Gordon Kerr KC, began last month.

The judge has told Mr Bryson to focus on answering the questions which he is asked and not to give speeches.

During three hours of cross examination, there were some sharp exchanges between Mr Bryson and the prosecution barrister Mr Hedworth.

On a number of occasions, the judge intervened and told Mr Bryson to "stick to the questions you're asked".

The loyalist activist denied any breaking any laws and insisted his actions surrounding the finance committee in 2015 had been political - not criminal.

Mr Bryson said politics can be a "dirty game" but he added: "This is not a court of morals, it's a court of law."

He said he had not just lobbied Sinn Féin politicians but many other parties on the Nama issue.

"This was a cross-community effort, as it were," he said.

In one of his private messages on X, Mr Bryson wrote "Who would ever have thought it, me and SF working together as the DUP squirm! Unreal!"

After the prosecution barrister read this out to the court, Mr Bryson played down its significance.

He told Mr Hedworth: "It's not the big 'smoking gun' you think it is."

Mr Bryson insisted it was not evidence of a conspiracy, but simply politics in action.

He insisted: "I made no agreement that Mr (Daithí) McKay would do anything."