It happened in late June 2021 as pressure grew over a number of Freedom of Information Act requests and interest from politicians around a letter sent by Donaghy to the Cabinet Office.
Senior Mid and East Antrim Council officers met at their chief executive’s house on a Sunday for apparent crisis talks over the deletion of an email, a court has heard.
Former council chief executive Anne Donaghy and senior officer Aaron McClelland were among those present at the meeting, along with a policy manager Paul Thompson who had knowledge of the Freedom of Information Act.
It happened in late June 2021 as pressure grew over a number of Freedom of Information Act requests and interest from politicians around a letter sent by Donaghy to the Cabinet Office.
That letter, sent in January, outlined concerns about the operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol at Larne Port following Brexit, and the safety of council staff operating those effective border posts amid opposition to the so-called Irish Sea border within the United Kingdom.
A number of council staff were removed from the port after alleged threats against them.
Donaghy, 56, of Clonmore Road, Dungannon, has been charged with deleting an email and having attempted to delete an email to prevent the disclosure of information through the Freedom of Information Act, as well as procuring the deletion of an email.
McClelland, 49, of Clonmakate Road, Portadown, has been charged with one count of having attempted to delete an email.
They both deny the charges and are represented by defence barristers in the proceedings at Ballymena Magistrates’ Court this week.
The charges centre around the deletion of an email to former first minister Arlene Foster, and the attempted deletion of another.
These emails were the forwarding of Donaghy’s letter to the UK Cabinet Office.
It was forwarded to a number of DUP politicians, including MPs Ian Paisley, Sammy Wilson and Jeffrey Donaldson, as well as mayor Peter Johnston.
The prosecution outlined that Donaghy had been advised by the local MPs to write to the Cabinet Office to outline her concerns about the impact of the NI Protocol, and “sinister graffiti” at Larne Port threatening staff carrying out inspections at the border post.
After writing the letter, Donaghy had her assistants forward it to the MPs, as well as then-agriculture minister Edwin Poots and economy minister Gordon Lyons on February 1, and later to Gregg McKeen, the DUP leader on the council, and representative for Larne Lough, as well as Mr Johnston and Ms Foster on February 2.
On February 8, the council received a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from a journalist asking for copies of letters sent to the UK Government about the NI Protocol and alleged threats to staff.
This was refused on the basis of health and safety, and security.
In April, Donaghy appeared before the Stormont Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, where she was questioned by Alliance MLA John Blair about her letter to the Cabinet Office, and why she had sought the views of DUP representatives, but not those of others parties.
In the same month, the council received another FOI request for emails concerning the NI Protocol, as well as a second FOI request from the journalist who previously made the request which was refused.
The prosecution said that by the end of April, there was “increasing political and media scrutiny”, and also described how Donaghy was concerned that she was being perceived as being “the DUP’s person”.
In June, a TUV delegation had a meeting with Donaghy over the letter to the Cabinet Office, and Timothy Gaston was described as inquiring why it was “only sent to members of the DUP”.
On Monday, the court heard from two of Donaghy’s former personal assistants, one who had deleted the email to Ms Foster, and the second who had refused to delete an email to another person.
Donaghy said in her police interviews that she was concerned about Ms Foster’s personal email address getting into the public domain, as there had been an issue with information being leaked from the council.
The court heard she accepted during her police interviews that she had asked one of her personnal assistants to delete the email to Ms Foster, but said a hard copy of it had been kept.
McClelland also maintained that hard copies of the emails had been kept by him in a locked cabinet.
Giving evidence to court on Tuesday morning, Mr Thompson said McClelland had texted him on Saturday June 26 asking him to call him.
Mr Thompson said when he did so, he was asked to attend a meeting at Donaghy’s house the following day (Sunday).
He said he was told of “whistleblowing”, and at the meeting he said he learned it was around emails being deleted, and asked for his opinion.
“I guess at that time, I was the person who had the most knowledge of the FOI Act,” he said.
The first journalist to request the information, also made a second request in April, to which he received the information.
Asked what had changed between requests one and two, Mr Thompson said: “I have no recollection.”
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