§ Mr. SpeakerI have received letters from the resident magistrate at the Belfast petty sessions informing me that Mr. William McCrea, the hon. Member for Mid-Ulster, and Rev. Ian Paisley, the hon. Member for Antrim, North, have been sentenced to periods of imprisonment of seven days. I shall cause the texts of those letters to be published in Votes and Proceedings and in the Official Report.
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Following are the letters:
Dear Mr. Speaker,
William Robert Thomas McCrea, Member of Parliament for Mid-Ulster, was convicted by me at Belfast Petty Sessions on 11 December 1987, of taking part in a public procession, contrary to Article 3 of the Public Order (Northern Ireland) Order 1987. I fined him £20.00, to be paid within 28 days. As that fine has not been paid Mr. McCrea was today committed to Prison for a period of 7 days.
Yours faithfully
C P McRandal
Resident Magistrate
Dear Mr. Speaker
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Member of Parliament for North Antrim, was convicted by me at Belfast Petty Sessions on 11 December 1987, of taking part in a public procession, contrary to Article 3 of the Public Order (Northern Ireland) Order 1987. I fined him £20.00, to be paid within 28 days.
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As that fine has not been paid Mr. Paisley was today committed to Prison for a period of 7 days.
Yours faithfully
C P McRandal
Resident Magistrate
Petty Sessions Office,
Courthouse,
Albert Place,
Ballymena,
BT43 5BS.
27th January 1988.
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Dear Sir,
I have to advise you that the Rev. Ian R. K. Paisley, MP, of North Antrim was convicted at Ballymena Petty Sessions on 11th November 1987 of the undernoted offence:
That he on the 11 th April 1987 at Ballymena, in the said District and County Court Division, took part in a public procession in respect of which the requirements of Article 3 of the Public Order (Northern Ireland) Order 1987 as to notice had not been satisfied, contrary to Article 3(5) (a) of the Public Order (Northern Ireland) Order 1987.
The Rev. Ian Paisley was fined £15 which was not paid. On the 23rd December 1987 a Warrant of Default was issued and was executed this afternoon. The Rev. Ian Paisley was lodged in Her Majesty's Prison, Crumlin Road, Belfast, for seven days for non-payment of the said fine.
Yours faithfully,
A. E. Wright,
Clerk of Petty Sessions.