EXCLUSIVE Top loyalist 'Mackers' fails in bid to gag Sunday Life over UVF leadership claims

     EXCLUSIVE SUNDAY LIFE STORY 

Top loyalist Stephen ‘Mackers’ Matthews has lost a last-minute High Court bid to stop Sunday Life naming him as the reported head of the East Belfast UVF.

      Pound Shop lawyer Jamie Bryson              (right), told the Sunday Life that                 'Mackers' (left) planned to issue                injunction proceedings to prevent           him being named in tomorrow's paper           as Head of the East Belfast UVF 

                    June 25th,2022. 

The inside story on how the gang has had more than £1m worth of drugs seized by police in the last year is revealed in tomorrow’s edition.

But when the newspaper contacted Matthews for comment, it was told by Jamie Bryson that Matthews planned to issue injunction proceedings to prevent his name being mentioned in the story.

.   Stephen 'Mackers' Matthews - striped                                    suit 

Sunday Life’s lawyers then received legal papers from Matthews’ solicitors on Friday evening and the case was quickly assigned to a judge.

The injunction hearing went ahead at 10am this morning in front of Mr Justice David Scoffield at the High Court in Belfast.

After hearing two hours of detailed submissions by barristers for Sunday Life and Matthews, he threw out the application.

Counsel for Matthews then asked for an anonymity order to be granted, which would have prevented Sunday Life reporting the fact that Matthews had tried to gag the newspaper.

However, after objections from Sunday Life’s barrister, Gerald Simpson QC, Mr Justice Scoffield also refused that application.

Commenting on the High Court victory, Martin Breen, deputy editor-in-chief of the Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life, said: “Sunday Life has a long and proud history of publishing important stories.

“We were not prepared to drop the story due to threats of High Court action. We are very happy that Mr Justice Scoffield has recognised the importance of freedom of expression in our society and that we are now free to publish this story.”

Edward McCann, deputy publisher at Sunday Life’s parent company, Mediahuis, said: “This verdict was an important win for press freedom, with the court re-emphasising that, in general, editors, rather than judges, are best placed to decide what is published in newspapers.

“Mediahuis believes in public interest journalism. In what was a very considered judgment delivered at short notice, Mr Justice Scoffield acknowledged the public interest in the story.

“I would like to thank our solicitor, Fergal McGoldrick, and barrister, Gerald Simpson QC, for their hard work — and the Sunday Life team too.”

With many thanks to the: Sunday Life and EXCLUSIVE Christopher Woodhouse for the original publication. 

Follow these links to find out more on this story: Suspected 'UVF dissident' Jamie Bryson warns republican dissidents over threats to loyalists

Pound Shop lawyer Jamie Bryson Loses Another Appeal Over Belfast Bonfire Legal Challenge Ruling

BRYSON'S COHORT AND PARTNER IN CRIME TOLD 'HIT THE ROAD DEE'!

EXCLUSIVE Top loyalist 'Mackers' fails in bid to gag Sunday Life over UVF leadership claims

Judge refuses to drop the case against suspected UVF dissident Jamie Bryson charged with making a false statement to the Security Industry Authority (SIA) on June 2018.

AN ALLEGEDLY "flawed" Security Industry Authority (SIA) investigation into Jamie Bryson was initiated by a police officer using a fake social media profile, the loyalist activist suggested in court yesterday.

Representing himself at his contest at Downpatrick Magistrates Court, Mr Bryson put to different investigators from the SIA that their investigation of him began when they received a "tip off" from a police officer using a pseudonym on a fake social media platform.

The loyalist blogger is on trial this time charged with making a false statement to the SIA and making a false statement to the body on June 6th 2018 that "JJ Security Services Limited has never traded".

The court has heard that the SIA wrote to Mr Bryson in September 2017 requesting information about JJ Security Services Ltd, a company where he was a named director, as part of an investigation into door staff operating in the north Down area.

In his reply Mr Bryson stated that JJ Security Services Ltd has never traded and he did not hold any relevant information. It is the contention that according to a £450 invoice for "SIA licensed event supervisors" at a bonfire festival in Bangor in 2017, a document created by JJ Security Services, five men were supplied for six hours at a rate of £15 per hour each.

That invoice was seized during searches of three addresses in north Down while the manner in which the search warrants were issued have resulted in a raft of applications before various courts where it was successfully argued the warrants were not lawfully obtained and journalistic material, computers and hard drives seized have all been returned to Mr Bryson.

In the witness box yesterday, an SIA investigator gave evidence that as far as he was concerned, he "made the assumption" that the two companies JJ Security Services Ltd and JJ Security were the same.

Ian Guest agreed that even though they had gone through documents which were "two inches thick" along with other files seized from Mr Bryson including statements from his personal bank accounts, the single invoice was the only thing suggesting that Mr Bryson had been involved in supplying unlicensed security staff.

Lodging an application at the end of the prosecution case for the charges to be dismissed. Mr Bryson argued that "there's absolutely nothing to show that a limited company was trading" so describing the case as fatally flawed.

Refusing to dismiss the charge District Judge Amanda Brady said in her view "there are questions that need to be answered" by the defence.

The case will resume June 29th.

With many thanks to: The Irish News for the original publication.

Follow these links to find out more on this story: BRYSON 'THE LEGAL EAGLE' LAUNCHES CIVIL ACTION AGAINST SINN FÉIN'S MICHELLE O’NEILL

UVF are set to sue Jamie Bryson for labeling the loyalist group 'illegal aliens' on BBC NI

Suspected 'UVF dissident' Jamie Bryson warns republican dissidents over threats to loyalists

Mass demonstrations will return if no changes are made to the NI Protocol, warns Jamie (pound shop lawyer) Bryson.

BRYSON 'THE LEGAL EAGLE' LAUNCHES CIVIL ACTION AGAINST SINN FÉIN'S MICHELLE O’NEILL

LOYALIST Activist Jamie (the pound-shop lawyer) Bryson has launched High Court proceedings against Sinn Féin's Michelle O’Neill as part of a vow to wage "legal guerrilla warfare" (that's a new one for the Oxford dictionary) on the NI Protocol. 

     Jamie Bryson: The pound-shop lawyer. 

            Wednesday 27th April, 2022. 

The wannabe lawyer claims the former Deputy First Minister unlawfully blocked a paper on post-Brexit Irish Sea border checks from the agenda at a Stormont Executive meeting. 

Papers have now been lodged seeking an urgent hearing of his application for leave to apply for an judicial review. 

Mr Bryson also wants an interim order to prohibit any further implementation of the Protocol by civil servents without fully meeting obligations to consider the North of Ireland's place in the UK internal market. 

The case relates to a paper on Brexit Sea Border checks submitted in January by DUP Agricultural Minister Edwin Poots. 

Mr Poots is already facing legal challenges for directing his officials to halt the inspections on goods entering the North of Ireland from Britain amid his party's continued opposition to the NI Protocol. 

The Minister said he had received legal advice that the step could be taken in the absence of wider Executive approval for the checks. 

Those inspections are continuing, however, pending the outcome of the challenges against Mr Poots. 

But in a further development, The legal eagle has commenced legal action against Ms O'Neill and the *orthern Ireland Civil Service. 

His lawyers claim the then Deputy First Minister blocked Mr Poots' paper from getting on the agenda of an Executive meeting on January 27th, depriving him of authority to continue the checks. 

That decision was procedurally flawed and involved a partisan political motive, they contend. 

Legal papers further allege a failure by Ms O'Neill and the Civil Service to discharge duties contained in Section 46 of the Internal Market Act 2020.

Mr Bryson claimed: "There is a plainly arguable case here that Michelle O’Neill acted unlawfully in blocking Minister Poots' paper on Protocol implementation from the Executive agenda."

He confirmed that interim relief is also being sought to potentially stop officials from further implementing the Protocol. 

"This is ongoing on the part of the Civil Service, so we want the court to intervene in the same way it has been willing to intervene to stay Minister Poots' order," he said. 

 We will fight them on the beaches over the                        Brexit Sea Border 

The loyalist activist pledged: "We will (fight them on the beaches) continue to fight legal guerrilla warfare in courts against the Protocol, attacking it from every possible angle. 

"Win or lose, we will keep coming again and again, pursuing legitimate and arguable challenges. The Protocol will never be permitted to embed."

With many thanks to: The News Letter and Alan Erwin for the original publication. 

Follow these links to find out more on this story and more details about the Protocol: BRYSON 'THE LEGAL EAGLE' LAUNCHES CIVIL ACTION AGAINST SINN FÉIN'S MICHELLE O’NEILL

Suspected 'UVF dissident' Jamie Bryson warns republican dissidents over threats to loyalists

POUND SHOP LAWYER, BRYSON, SETS UP 'MEDIA MONITORING' GROUP!