An IRA man who took part in a conspiracy to bring chaos to London and England's south-east by blowing up electricity substations has had a seven-year reduction in his 35-year sentence.
Patrick Martin (37), who had been living in Tooting, south-west London, had his prison sentence reduced to 28 years after the Court of Appeal in London concluded that allowance should be made for the fact that "death and injury was not the primary object" of the bombing campaign.
Martin was one of six members of a Provisional IRA unit jailed at the Old Bailey in July 1997. They were described by the trial judge, Mr Justice Scott Baker, as "out to destabilise the community".
Lord Bingham, the Lord Chief Justice, yesterday allowed Martin's appeal, saying: "We do . . . conclude that some weight must be given to the fact that death and injury, although a likely by-product of implementation of the conspirators' plan, was not its primary object."