Belfast man pleads guilty to loyalist bomb hoax targeting Simon Coveney

Darren James Service, 45, admitted hijacking a van and staging a bomb hoax at a peace event attended by then-Tánaiste Simon Coveney in March 2022.

Belfast businessman admits bomb hoax at Coveney peace event

A Belfast businessman has pleaded guilty to charges connected to a loyalist bomb hoax directed at then-Tánaiste Simon Coveney, RTÉ News reports. Darren James Service, 45, of Ballysillan Road in north Belfast, entered his pleas at Belfast Crown Court on Monday, ahead of a non-jury trial that had been scheduled to begin on 7 September.

Service pleaded guilty to hijacking a Vauxhall Vivaro van and placing an article causing a bomb hoax at the Houben Centre, Holy Cross Church on the Crumlin Road, on 25 March 2022. A senior Crown prosecutor confirmed the pleas were acceptable to the prosecution. A third charge — preparation of acts of terrorism — was left on the books of the court and will not be proceeded with without the leave of the court or the Court of Appeal.

Judge Gordon Kerr ordered a Multi-Agency Review Arrangements (MARA) report to be prepared by the Department of Justice and set the plea and sentence hearing for 4 November 2026. Senior defence counsel Joseph O'Keefe KC indicated he would provide updated medical reports on Service ahead of that hearing. Service was released on continuing bail.

According to evidence heard at an earlier stage of proceedings, on 25 March 2022 a workman was threatened and forced by two masked men to transport a device in the back of his vehicle to a peace-building event on the Crumlin Road. Coveney, who was serving as Tánaiste and minister for foreign affairs at the time, was attending the event at the Houben Centre inside Holy Cross Church.

After the van driver alerted police to the device, the centre was evacuated. The alert was later described as a bomb hoax. The prosecution's case held that Service drove the two masked men who carried out the hijacking to the scene, and characterised the incident as terrorist offences "carried out by the UVF".

When officers searched Service's home in the aftermath of the incident, they seized £100,000 found in a safe, along with balaclavas, a replica firearm, UVF pins, and luxury watches. A mobile phone belonging to Service, who had been on remand for 19 months at the time of a previous bail hearing, has never been recovered. No further details about the circumstances of the charges were disclosed in court on Monday.

Source: RTÉ News