Jamie Bryson breached red traffic light after fearing he was being followed

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/jamie-bryson-breached-red-traffic-light-after-fearing-he-was-being-followed/a1716441527.html

Prominent loyalist activist Jamie Bryson breached a traffic signal fearing he was being followed and an attack was imminent, a court heard today.

While the 34-year-old told District Judge Francis Rafferty he accepted running a red light on 12 September last year, Mr Bryson told the judge he had a “reasonable excuse” defence, emphasising that at the time the PSNI had recently told him he was under a verifiable death threat.

Giving evidence to Newtownards Magistrates Court on his own behalf, the prominent loyalist also highlighted that a man who had made repeated threats against him and whom the police believed “had ready access to guns,” was on the run.

At the start of the ten minute contest, a prosecuting lawyer told District Judge Rafferty how the defendant’s Audi Q2 breached the traffic light at the junction of the York Link and Nelson Street.

Representing himself however, Mr Bryson maintained that he had a “reasonable excuse” for running the red light.

He told Judge Rafferty that as he drove towards Belfast he noticed a car with tinted windows behind him, adding that as the journey progressed: “This car made a number of attempts to get around me but then came back in behind me.”

“As. I approached the lights I manoeuvred my car across over two lanes as I believed that this car was going to come up alongside me and potentially carry out some form of attack on me,” Mr Bryson explained.Jamie Bryson breached red traffic light after fearing he was being followed

In reference to paint being daubed on the walls of Ards court during the North Down feud, he said that around that time: “I had written a public letter to the Newsletter after this court was attacked…and I had been subject to death threats from drug dealers and drug gangs.”

Having been given a TM1 notice by the PSNI that there was a verifiable threat on his life, Mr Bryson told the court he had been given a booklet by the police which advised on what to do when a person is subject to such threats.

One aspect of that, he told the court, was what to do when stopping at traffic lights so when he believed the tinted window car behind was following in a sinister way: “I made the conscious decision” to breach the traffic signal.

Under cross examination the prosecutor asked the loyalist activist why, if the car had been following him for about five minutes, he had failed to note the registration plate but he told the lawyer he would have done so had the car followed him through the red light.

“Why not phone the police…or drive to the nearest police station,” Judge Rafferty asked him but Mr Bryson maintained “there is a demonstrable context in this,” highlighting that seven other people have been sentenced “in this very court” for making threats against him.

“I am living under a daily death threat so I am taking precautions and when I’m driving, I’m checking my mirrors and all around to see if there’s anything suspicious,” he told the judge adding that he “may well have” driven to a police station if the tinted window car had followed him “but it didn’t.”

In final submissions the PPS conceded it was a matter for the judge to decide what could amount to a reasonable excuse while Mr Bryson maintained that although he accepts breaking the red light, “the prosecution have offered nothing to refute the death threats I have been under” and as such, he had put forward a reasonable explanation.

Judge Rafferty said while he found it “incredible” that Mr Bryson did not call the police when he feared he was being followed, “nevertheless I’m required to be satisfied to the criminal standard and in the circumstances, I cannot be so satisfied so I’m marking the matter dismissed.”