The BelTel

Julia Holmes was born as Cecilia McKitterick in Castlederg, County Tyrone. After leaving Northern Ireland when she was 19, she eventually settled in Texas, where she started her career as a scam artist - using more than 40 names to dupe her targets into handing over huge sums of money. She posed as countless aliases, including a minister and a psychologist. After being deported home for her crimes, she continued her scams, until she was found dead in 2015 alongside her partner, in what appeared as a suicide pact.
Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Gillian Halliday.
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The inquest into the death of Noah Donohoe, which is being heard before a jury, has now heard 13 weeks of evidence.
The 14-year-old’s body was discovered in north Belfast on June 27, 2020, six days after he went missing as he cycled to meet friends. On Monday, the jury heard from Daryl Paul, the thief convicted of stealing Noah Donohoe’s laptop.
Under cross-examination he denied an image of a hand found on the schoolboy’s phone belonged to him.

Liam Tunney is covering the inquest for the Belfast Telegraph.
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Dissident republican bombers have struck twice in recent weeks. On Saturday a bomb exploded at Dunmurry PSNI station in Belfast. The bombers used an almost identical method to those who tried to attack Lurgan police station last month. In both attacks a delivery driver was hijacked, threatened, and told to drive the bomb to its target. These attacks, claimed by the New IRA, came after a lull in violence– so what has sparked this outbreak?

Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Belfast Telegraph security correspondent, Allison Morris.
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Today we know that Stakeknife existed, and that he was Freddie Scappaticci. We know that Scappaticci, at the top of the IRA unit hunting informers was himself an informer for British security forces. But prior to the story being brought to light by journalist Liam Clarke, then at the Sunday Times, the public, and indeed the IRA, had no idea. There was a clear public interest in the story, but when it began to emerge M15 and MI6 went to great lengths to try to keep a lid on it – and were worried about another story Clarke was investigating, which involved Martin McGuinness. Formerly secret ‘Kew Files’ reveal their motivations.

Ciarán Dunbar is joined by the Belfast Telegraph’s Northern Ireland editor, Sam McBride.
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Stormont, through Invest NI, is funding a CIA-linked firm whose secretive and powerful tech is being used by Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown force - ICE Software developed in Belfast by Nisos, a company founded by former intelligence operatives, is now being used by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. A former Nisos employee says few people understand the significance of what’s involved, but “it’s like handing a toddler a loaded gun”. Invest NI, is an agency under Sinn Féin Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald’s department – she ordered officials to look into the funding.

The Belfast Telegraph’s Northern Ireland editor Sam McBride joins Ciarán Dunbar.
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