West Belfast woman Fionnghuale Perry appeals sentencing for dissident republican terrorism offences

A west Belfast pensioner jailed for collecting information for dissident republican terrorists is mounting a legal bid to overturn her conviction.

Fionnghuale Mary Teresa Dympha Perry, 65, is currently serving a four-year sentence in connection with “security debrief” documents found at her home about a police seizure of firearms, ammunition and explosives.

She was found guilty of collecting or making a record of information likely to be of use to terrorists following a non-jury trial earlier this year. 

Judges at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday confirmed her challenge to the conviction will be heard later this month.

Perry, of Waterville Street in the city, is currently not due to be released from prison until January 2026.

She is also appealing the sentence imposed based on issues related to her condition of Multiple Sclerosis.

The court was told a report has been requested on the health care being provided to her in custody.

In 2018 police discovered the documents inside a perfume box at Perry’s home.

Officers searched a spare bedroom and located seven cigarette papers containing written information about an earlier recovery of weapons and explosives, the trial heard.

The notes related to interviews carried out following seizures from Kevin Barry Nolan’s home in Ballymurphy, west Belfast in 2015.

Nolan was later convicted and jailed for storing Semtex, guns and bullets.

Prosecutors argued that the papers discovered in Perry’s house were a security debrief about the seized weapons to find out what went wrong and how police came to find them. 

Defence lawyers claimed she had a reasonable excuse for the notes because of a role as a journalist writing on political and security issues.

But rejecting her case, the trial judge declared himself satisfied beyond any doubt that she was guilty of collecting or making a record likely to be useful to a terrorist.

He described the information compiled as “sinister” and found that Perry had played a role in supporting the continuation of dissident republican violence.

In court today Lord Justice McCloskey issued final directions on the time period both sides will be allocated for oral submissions at the appeal hearing.

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