A court heard that Anne Donaghy had an incentive to delete emails because of the perception that she was too close to DUP politicians. The former Mid and East Antrim Council chief executive, 56, of Clonmore Road in Dungannon, denies three charges linked to an email exchange at the centre of the case.
She faces allegations of deleting or attempting to delete an email in contravention of the Freedom of Information Act, and of aiding and abetting another person to do so. Aaron McClelland, 49, of Clonmakate Road in Portadown, also denies a separate charge of attempting to delete an email.
Arlene Foster email chain
The emails were sent to Arlene Foster and Gregg McKeen, and they forwarded a letter Donaghy had sent to senior civil servants in London. On 30 January 2021, her PA sent that letter to the Cabinet Office in London.
In it, Donaghy said she had been advised by Ian Paisley, Sammy Wilson and Jeffrey Donaldson that she should write to the Cabinet Office about protocol-related issues. She also said “sinister graffiti” had appeared at Larne Port threatening the security of staff working at border control posts.
Donaghy forwarded the letter on 31 January 2021 to Ian Paisley, Sammy Wilson and Jeffrey Donaldson. In the coming days, she sent it to Edwin Poots, Gregg McKeen, Peter Johnston, a personal email address of Arlene Foster and Gordon Lyons.
Freedom of Information request
A few days after the email to Foster, Brendan Hughes made a Freedom of Information request to the council for correspondence, internal and external, relating to alleged threats to staff over the Northern Ireland protocol. In April, the council told him it would not release the information on health and safety and confidentiality grounds.
The court was also told that the DUP had criticised the border control arrangements. That leaves the email chain and the later disclosure refusal at the heart of the case: one set of records moved through multiple political contacts, while the council later withheld related material from release.
Ballymena Magistrates' Court
The hearing at Ballymena Magistrates' Court now turns on whether the prosecution can link the alleged deletion, or attempted deletion, to those emails and the wider Freedom of Information request. Donaghy’s earlier circulation of the letter and the later refusal to release related information mean the court is examining both the record trail and what was kept back.
For Donaghy, the practical issue is straightforward: the court must decide whether the email handling crossed the line from correspondence into alleged deletion. If it did, the case will turn on how that sequence fits with the Council’s later decision to withhold the records and the evidence the prosecution relies on.
