A self-confessed ‘prepper’ charged with possessing firearms in his south Belfast home has been bailed.
Ralph Andrew James Caldwell is awaiting trial on a total of 22 charges dating back to May 2021.
These charges are 21 separate counts of possessing firearms in suspicious circumstances and one count of ‘possessing, acquiring, importing or using’ a substance, namely potassium nitrate.
Whilst on bail for these offences, Caldwell was re-arrested and returned to custody on charges arising from a separate search of his Jerusalem Street home in May 2024.
During this second search, it is alleged that suspected shotguns, chemical substances and other items were seized.
Caldwell (40) - who at a previous hearing was referred to by his defence as a ‘prepper, prepping for a cataclysmic event’ - was led into the dock of Belfast Crown Court on Wednesday by prison staff.
Launching a bid to release his client on bail, Caldwell’s solicitor raised the issue of delay in the May 2021 case to Judge Patrick Lynch KC.
Saying Caldwell is finding his time in prison as “extremely challenging”, the solicitor said that regarding the May 2021 charges, a trial date was fixed for December 2, 2024 but the hearing did not proceed then.
Referencing the current industrial action taken by criminal barristers in a dispute over Legal Aid, the solicitor said that due to delay, it could be “some considerable time” before Caldwell’s trial is held.
The solicitor also raised the alleged offending last May and said that in the absence of a forensic report regarding the items seized, there was no evidence to suggest “they were in fact illegal.”
A Crown barrister then addressed the issue of the forensic report regarding the items seized from Caldwell’s home in May 2024.
Telling Judge Lynch there was a “huge volume and amount of material” seized, the prosecutor said this had caused issues but that a forensic report was expected by the end of March “if not sooner.”
These items, the Crown barrister said, included suspected threaded pipes, shotgun cartridges, 3D printed guns, a bag of bullets and white powder.
Accepting there had been a delay with regard to these items and a forensic report, the prosecutor said the PSNI and Forensic Science are “working together”.
He told the Judge “it doesn’t look like .. there is an innocent purpose for this quantity of material.”
Judge Lunch granted the application, imposed a series of conditions and warned Caldwell that any breaches of any of the terms of bail would result in him being returned to custody until his trial for the May 2021 offences.