A man appeared at Craigavon Magistrates’ Court on Friday charged with fraud by false representation in a case connected to the murder of Sunday World journalist Martin O’Hagan in Lurgan in 2001.
Michael Kingsberry (42), with an address listed on the charge sheet on the press list as at Sycamore Close which is in Howden near Goole in East Yorkshire, is charged in relation to August 15 in 2019.
Reference was also made in court to the defendant having an address at Queen Mary Grove, which is understood to be in Sheffield.
The charge is ‘fraud by false representation’.
The particulars of the charge are that he ‘dishonestly made a false representation, namely, purported to hold official documents with the intention, by making the representation, to make a gain for yourself or another or to cause loss to family of Martin O’Hagan (deceased) or to expose them to a risk of loss’.
The accused confirmed he understood the charge.
A police officer said she believed she could connect the accused to the charge.
A prosecutor said the full file in the case is due with her department from police by June 4.
The court heard it was a “complex” file.
The defendant was given £500 bail with conditions that he is to have no contact with any member of Mr O’Hagan’s family and he is not to enter Lurgan.
The case was adjourned to June 13.
Mr O’Hagan was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries as he walked home from a night out with his wife in Lurgan in September 2001.
No-one has ever been successfully prosecuted for his murder.
