A man (37) has been acquitted in a court in Leeds of conspiring to cause an explosion under the car of a man with links to loyalist terrorists.
William Shaw denied conspiring with Stanley Curry and others to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury in Bolton on or before December 17th, 2003, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Train driver Curry (48), of Yardley, Birmingham, who has strong ties to loyalist groups in Northern Ireland, was jailed for 20 years in June last year for planting a bomb under the car of a close friend of Johnny Adair as part of a terrorist feud.
Following a five-week trial, which was held in camera in Leeds, a jury found Mr Shaw not guilty yesterday, but the case can only be reported today for legal reasons.
The court heard that on February 1st, 2003, two senior members of the South East Antrim UDA - John Gregg and Robert Carson - were shot and killed in a taxi in Belfast. The murders arose out of a public feud between the UDA and Adair's C Company, whose members were believed to have been behind the attack.
Three days later, some members of C Company, including John "Fat Jackie" Thompson, and their families left Northern Ireland for England, and Mr Thompson, a close associate of Adair's, settled in Bolton.
An under-car booby trap device was placed under the driver's seat of Mr Thompson's red Ford Escort in December 2003, and it was activated by a mercury tilt switch in the device.
The bomb detonated as Mr Thompson drove the car over a speed bump on Windsor Grove in Bolton on December 17th, and a small explosion damaged the car. Mr Thompson was uninjured.
The court heard the detonators failed to set off the main explosive charge and a DNA profile matching that of Mr Shaw was found on one of the cable ties holding the bomb together.