THREE MEN who admitted having a potentially lethal armour-piercing mortar bomb were yesterday jailed for a total of 45 years.
Jailing the Lurgan trio of Damien William McKenna (26), Gary Toman (24) and Seán Gerard McConville (23) for 15 years each, Belfast Crown Court judge Mr Justice Treacy said that “on any showing, they were all deeply implicated in the sinister events” which led to the discovery of the bomb, support frame and propulsion unit in a field near Lurgan on April 5th, 2007.
Commenting on the resurgence of “violent terrorist activity”, the judge said: “Those who are seduced by the false glamour of terrorism, perhaps those too young to remember or blinded to its horrific consequences, should not allow themselves to be deluded. Upon conviction they face lengthy deterrent sentences.”
As the three were led to the cells, the packed public gallery in court 13 at the Laganside court complex erupted into cheers and applause, with a Tricolour being held aloft as men and women shouted “up the ‘Ra”.
McKenna, Dean’s Walk; Toman, Drumnamoe Avenue, and McConville, Kilwilkie Road, all Lurgan, were linked to the device by forensic evidence after they were arrested close to the field where it was found.
Their trial was due to start last week but after two days of legal wrangling, they each pleaded guilty to possessing the mortar bomb, support frame and a propulsion unit with intent to endanger life. The prosecution decided not to proceed on a charge of conspiring to cause an explosion. The court heard the device would have been ready to use once a command wire was attached. An expert said it was “capable of causing severe damage to an armoured vehicle, thus inflicting injury or possible death”.
Mr Justice Treacy heard that since February and March this year there had been dissident activity, including the recent discovery of a 600lb bomb at Forkhill, but it was argued it would be wrong for the three “footsoldiers” to be sentenced on the basis of those activities.
Defence lawyers said the three had instructed them they had been in the field to check and conceal the device. The judge recalled surveillance evidence from military personnel and from a helicopter which proved they had all been in the field for over half an hour.
He told the court any acceptance of the role the defendants tried to claim would “require an astonishing degree of naivety” and added the only mitigating factor he could see was their guilty pleas, which had been “belated”.
On March 29th, when McKenna, Toman and McConville were arrested in a Nissan Primera car close to the junction of the Cornakinnegar Road and North Circular Road in Lurgan, officers noted that they all had wet and dirty trousers and footwear.
Their clothing was seized and sent for forensic testing, while a search of the field was carried out. In McKenna’s pocket, police found a circuit tester with wire, a pair of wire cutters, a wire stripper and gloves, while inside the car, police uncovered four large batteries.
The bomb was not found until April 5th. An army officer made it safe using a controlled explosion.
Following the forensic reports on the items seized from the trio, they were all rearrested.