A man accused of rioting while wearing a Spiderman mask in central Belfast last year, went on trial today.
Belfast Crown Court heard that a person with a Spiderman mask was captured on closed-circuit television throwing several missiles at police lines .
Prosecution lawyer Philip Henry claimed 'Spiderman' was Ronnie Nelson (29) from East Way in Newtownabbey, who has admitted being in the area where trouble flared in August 2013, but denies he was the man behind the mask.
As the Crown case against Mr Nelson was opened, the court heard trouble flared in the Royal Avenue area of Belfast on August 9th last year after a group of loyalists mounted a protest over an anti-internment parade which was due to take place that evening.
Mr Nelson, who on the evening in question was captured on closed-circuit television wearing a light grey Adidas tracksuit with yellow stripes , is accused of covering his face with the Spiderman mask and launching several items at officers.
Telling the jury “it is the prosecution’s case that the man wearing the red mask and grey tracksuit is the defendant Ronnie Nelson,” Mr Henry said.
During an interview with police, Mr Nelson accepted he was the man in the grey tracksuit pictured without a mask walking along North Street making his way towards the area where the trouble was. However he denied he was the man wearing the mask and taking part in the riot. He subsequently pleaded ‘not guilty’ to a charge of rioting.
The investigating officer was asked if she found anyone else wearing the same tracksuit. The constable said after watching hours of both PSNI footage and footage posted on YouTube, the only person she could see wearing the grey tracksuit was Mr Nelson. She said this led her to conclude that Nelson was the man wearing the Spiderman mask.