Published Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Fulton and Briggs are charged with blackmail. (© UTV)
Lawyers for 40-year-old Fulton and Mark Briggs, also known as Marc Briggs, had argued to have their cases thrown out of Belfast Crown Court.
But when Judge David McFarland refused the applications, the pair pleaded not guilty to two counts of blackmail.
Fulton, from Gillespie Court in Comber and Briggs, from the Westland Road in Portadown, are each charged with blackmailing £15,000 from alleged victims known only as witnesses A and B on dates between 21 February and 24 March last year.
Two other men, 47-year-old Philip Blaney, also from Westland Road, and Daniel Hamilton, 30, from the Old Mill Manor, Laurelvale pleaded not guilty to the same charges at Belfast Crown Court last week.