A Belfast businessman has admitted two charges arising from a loyalist bomb hoax that targeted an event where former Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney was due to speak, bringing a long-running case closer to sentencing.
Darren James Service, 45, of Ballysillan Road in north Belfast, appeared before Belfast Crown Court and entered guilty pleas 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. The court was told that the non-jury trial had been due to start on 7 September, but the plea change removed the need for that immediate hearing.
Senior defence counsel Joseph O’Keefe KC said he had an application for Service to be re-arraigned on two of the three charges he had previously denied. A senior Crown prosecutor said the pleas were acceptable to the prosecution. The judge then ordered a Multi-Agency Review Arrangements report and fixed a plea and sentence hearing for 4 November 2026.
The case stems from a 25 March 2022 incident that forced the evacuation of the Houben Centre in north Belfast. According to the court account, a workman was threatened and made to transport a device placed in the back of his vehicle by two masked men to a peace-building event on the Crumlin Road. Coveney, who was then Ireland’s tánaiste and minister for foreign affairs and trade, was due to address the event.
After the van driver alerted police about the device, the centre was evacuated in what was later described as a hoax bomb alert. Prosecutors said it was their case that the two masked men who hijacked the van had been driven to the scene by Service. The prosecution also described the March 2022 incident as terrorist offences carried out by the UVF.
The court heard further allegations about what officers found after Service’s home was searched in the aftermath of the incident. Prosecutors said police seized £100,000 from a safe, along with balaclavas, a replica firearm, UVF pins and luxury watches. The case file also noted that Service’s mobile phone has never been found.
Service remained on continuing bail ahead of sentencing. The judge’s directions mean the case is not finished yet: one count of preparation of acts of terrorism remains on the books of the court, and the court was told it should not be proceeded with without leave of the court or the Court of Appeal.
For now, the key development is the guilty pleas on the hijacking and bomb-hoax counts. They establish formal responsibility for the violent disruption around the Houben Centre incident and shift the case from dispute over guilt to the separate question of sentence. The next listed hearing on 4 November 2026 will determine how the court deals with the admissions, the unresolved count, and the material the defence said it would provide in updated medical reports before sentencing.
