Polish defendant accused of racism

A judge has accused a Polish defendant of racism against Irish people. Judge Bernie Kelly made the accusation in Omagh Magistrates Court when sentencing Wieslaw Muszelik for driving while disqualified, and with no insurance.

Judge Kelly said she was fed up with people “who assume that we, as a race of people, are stupid. Now, I can't stand racism in any form. And, contrary to public opinion, it is possible to be racist against us. That's the only conclusion I can draw.”

Muszelik pleaded guilty to the charges through an interpreter. Police had stopped him while driving, three months after Judge Kelly had disqualified him at Omagh Magistrates Court. She sentenced 53 year old Muszelik of Killybrack Close, Omagh, to two months imprisonment, and invoked an earlier two-month suspended sentence. The sentences are to run consecutively. She released Muszelik on bail, pending appear.

(An edited version of this piece was published in the Irish Daily Star of September 12th)

Foster lobbied for illegal dumper

(an edited version of this piece was published in Village magazine July 2018)

Former First Minister Arlene Foster lobbied on behalf of one of Northern Ireland's biggest illegal dumpers. In her statement to the Renewable Heat Incentive Inquiry, she said she made representations on behalf of Stephen Harron.

Harron has been convicted of dumping 20,000 tons of waste on his land at Arney, Co Fermanagh. The court heard he made £2million by his crime. He received a 12 month suspended sentence.

Harron was convicted in September 2016, 10 months after lobbying Foster.

However, in March 2013, there was widespread media coverage when one of Northern Ireland's biggest operations against illegal dumping took place on Harron's land, involving Environment Agency officials and police. The Environment Agency said at the time it had uncovered a large amount of household rubbish.

Harron approached Foster two and a half years later. In her statement, she said: “Following a telephone conversation on 13th November 2015,with a constituent, Stephen Harron, I telephoned Timothy Cairns and enquired about the possibility of moving back by a week or so the introduction of the tiered tariffs. However, on being briefed on costing dimensions around such a possibility I accepted matters should proceed as planned.”

Foster was clear that she knew who Harron was. “Stephen Harron was a constituent and former client of mine when I was a solicitor in Cooper Wilkinson,” she wrote. “I ... know other members of the Harron family as they are from Fermanagh.”

She gave evidence that she spent some time helping him: “(Harron) told me that he was now working fitting boilers and that he had clients who had ordered boilers that hadn’t yet arrived. He explained that he would not be able to get these boilers fitted before the Scheme changed and asked me when the Scheme was changing and if anything could be done... I undertook to enquire on his behalf.”

Rather than raising Harron's representations with Jonathan Bell, then Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister, she went to his Special Advisor, Timothy Cairns. She “didn't want to bother the Minister with a constituency enquiry.” Cairns refused Harron's request.

The origin of the waste has not been publicly disclosed. However, Harron was contracted to collect waste from security force bases across the North. He also held the contract to dispose of rubble from demolished bases.

During Harron's trial, the prosecution alleged dumping on his land had been going on since 1996.