Ex-policeman pleads not guilty

Patrick Christopher Murdoch (44), whose address was given as 17-19 Lodge Road, appeared at a short arraignment hearing at Coleraine Crown Court last Friday.

The charge was read as follows: “Patrick Christopher Murdoch on the 10th day of June 2008 in the County Court Division of Antrim, with intent to pervert the course of public justice, did an act which had a tendency to pervert the course of public justice, in that they having received a complaint by telephone call from a person who identified himself to you as Barney Glass in relation to two girls in an illegal suspected brothel in a flat opposite Bertha’s or Love’s Bar, Castlerock, he failed to disclose to Sergeant Sean Craig his relationship with one of the said girls who lived in the flat and his knowledge of the subject of the complaint and subsequently made a telephone call to one of the girls despite having been instructed that any information in relation to this matter should not be discussed outside the Call Handling Office PSNI Coleraine, contrary to Common Law.”

In answer to the charge Murdoch replied ‘not guilty’.

The trial will start at Antrim Courthouse on May 4. Murdoch was released on continuing bail.