Sharon Wootton, whose son is accused of Continuity IRA killing, pleads guilty to removing computer equipment

The mother of one of the men accused of the Continuity IRA murder of a Northern Ireland police officer has pleaded guilty to obstructing the investigation into the killing.

Sharon Wootton admitted on Friday that she removed computer equipment from her home to another address after police raids on the house between 8 March and 11 March 2009. However, Lord Justice Girvan acquitted her of perverting the course of justice after the Crown offered no further evidence on that charge.

Wootton's son, John Paul, from Collingdale, Lurgan, and former Sinn F?in councillor Brendan McConville, 40, of Glenholme Avenue, Craigavon, both deny murdering Constable Stephen Carroll on 9 March 2009.

Constable Carroll was the first officer from the Police Service of Northern Ireland to be shot dead by paramilitaries. He was fatally wounded after responding to a 999 call at Lismore Manor in Craigavon.

Lord Justice Girvan adjourned passing sentence until a date to be fixed.

Meanwhile, Marian Price, who served a prison sentence for the IRA bombing of the Old Bailey in London in 1973, has been moved from Maghaberry top security prison to the women's jail at Hydebank outside Belfast, it emerged on Friday.

She is in prison facing charges under the Terrorism Act after holding a statement to be read by a masked Real IRA member last Easter in Derry city.

The republican veteran's continued incarceration has been described as a "form of internment" by human rights campaigner Raymond Murray.

The former chaplain to female IRA prisoners in Armagh Women's Prison said: "I am just shocked that the secretary of state wouldn't be aware of how seriously nationalist people look on internment. We thought it had all ended and here it is coming under a form of revocation, revoking a licence."

Murray added: "He would have to explain to us and explain the process of law as regards Marian Price. In any way has she broken the law? That would have to be provided but it is not provided by shoving her into prison on a pretence in an unjust way."

The Northern Ireland Prison Service said the decision to move Price out of Maghaberry was taken on clinical advice from healthcare staff at the South Eastern Trust of the NHS.

Marian Price gained a high profile during the 1970s after staging a series of hunger strikes in English prisons during which the authorities forcefed her and her sister Dolours.