Trio jailed over dissident bomb plot
Three Lurgan men who admitted having a potentially lethal mortar bomb have been jailed for a total of 45 years.
Damien William McKenna, 26, Gary Toman, 24, and Sean Gerard McConville, 23, were jailed 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 mortar bomb, support frame and propulsion unit in a field near Lurgan on April 5, 2007.
Commenting on the recent “resurgence of extreme 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.”
The Lurgan trio of McKenna from Dean’s Walk, Toman from Drumnamoe Avenue and McConville from Kilwilkie Road, were all linked to the deadly improvised 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 wranglings.
They each pleaded guilty to possessing the mortar bomb, the support frame and a propulsion unit with intent to endanger life, and the prosecution decided not to proceed on a charge of conspiring to cause an explosion.
The court heard that the device would have been ready to use once the detonating command wire was attached with a senior forensic expert opining that it was “capable of causing severe damage to an armoured vehicle, thus inflicting injury or possible death”.
