AN ANTRIM WOMAN pleaded guilty in court yesterday to causing the death by careless driving of David Tweed, the former rugby international, DUP councillor and convicted paedophile.

Anne Broughton, with an address at Whitepark Road in Ballycastle, Co Antrim, entered a guilty plea yesterday to causing the death of David Tweed by driving carelessly on 28 October 2021.

None of the background facts of the case were opened in court yesterday, but it was reported at the time that 61-year-old Tweed died at the scene.

It was reported that his motorcycle was in a collision with a car at around 4.30pm that day.

A former international rugby player who was capped four times for Ireland, Tweed served on Ballymena council for the DUP and later the TUV.

As a former member of the Orange Order in Dunloy, he was involved in the Harryville dispute when loyalists picketed a Catholic church in Ballymena.

He left the DUP in 2007 over the party’s decision to share power with Sinn Féin and later, joined Jim Allister’s Traditional Unionist Voice.

In 2012 a Crown Court jury found him guilty of 13 counts of indecent assault, gross indecency with a child and inciting gross indecency with a child and he was handed an eight-year jail sentence for those crimes.

He appealed however, and having served four years behind bars, the Court of Appeal quashed Tweed’s convictions, citing the prejudicial nature of the trial judge’s charge to the jury.

In court yesterday, defence KC Kieran Mallon asked for Broughton’s sentencing to be adjourned to allow time for the completion of a pre-sentence report from the probation board.

Prosecuting KC Ciaran Murphy said that in addition, the PPS would be obtaining victim impact statements, reminding the judge that given Broughton’s admission, she now faced a mandatory driving ban.

Freeing Broughton on bail and ordering a pre-sentence report, Judge Gilpin said he would deal with the case on 7 November.

Imposing an interim driving ban, he told Broughton that the length of the ban would be determined when he passes sentence.