PSNI data breach: Christopher Paul O'Kane granted bail

Christopher O'Kane at a previous court hearing

A 50-year-old man charged with terrorism offences linked to a major data breach by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has been granted bail.

Christopher Paul O'Kane was granted bail at the High Court on Tuesday.

It is alleged that Mr O'Kane, of Main Street, Feeny, County Londonderry, had a spreadsheet containing the names of every member of the force on his phone.

He was arrested last month, following a search of his house.

The data breach happened in August, when police released the names of more than 10,000 staff and officers by mistake, under a Freedom of Information (FoI) request.

Mr O'Kane is accused of possessing two mobile phones for the purposes of preparing terrorist acts and having information likely to be useful to terrorists - namely the spreadsheet of names.

On Tuesday, Mr Justice Humphreys told the High Court: "There is no evidence that the applicant is a member of a dissident paramilitary group."

Prosecutors claimed he had tried to conceal one phone, with a second located under a bedroom pillow.

Examinations established that the spreadsheet of officers' names had been sent to one of the devices by WhatsApp message and downloaded before the message was deleted, with the information still accessible offline, the court was told.

A lawyer for the Crown described Mr O'Kane as someone highly efficient in technology who had allegedly tried to wipe his digital footprint.

Sections of the material sent to his phone were said to have been highlighted, including those featuring senior executive teams in the PSNI and officers based in the Derry area.

It is also claimed that two officers were highlighted; one who had multiple dealings with Mr O'Kane, and another who was previously targeted in a dissident republican bomb attack.

Within hours of receiving the WhatsApp message, the accused allegedly accessed a website used to search for residential addresses.

'Computer geek'

During Tuesday's court hearing, defence lawyers argued that Mr O'Kane deleted the file and is no risk to any police officers.

Counsel contended that the data was shared among thousands of others who have not been charged.

Barrister, Joe Brolly, characterised him as a "computer geek" who wrongly became a suspect because of his links with Irish republicanism.

The court was told that Mr O'Kane worked as an IT consultant and acted as administrator for websites run by Irish republican group, Saoradh, and the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association.

Granting bail, Mr Justice Humphreys acknowledged concerns that the defendant had the technological skills to delete or distribute the information.

But he said that a forensic analysis of the defendant's phones found nothing to indicate that he shared the spreadsheet or any data.

He said that few, if any, police officers' home addresses would be publicly available through a web search.

Mr O'Kane was ordered to put up a £2,000 cash security and abide by a curfew and electronic monitoring.

He is also prohibited him from accessing the internet and entering the city of Derry.