A 40-year-old Co Down man who discarded a pipe bomb in a garden on the outskirts of Belfast after spotting police officers has been jailed for four years.
Branding the offence committed by Sean Ruddy as "very serious", Judge Gordon Kerr QC spoke of the potential dangers to both life and property that are posed by such explosive devices.
Ruddy, a father-of-two from Burren Meadow in Newcastle, pleaded guilty to possessing the pipe bomb and various components to enable others to endanger life or cause damage to property.
At a previous hearing, the court was told that since he admitted the charge earlier this year, Ruddy has been subjected "to a insults and abuse" as a direct consequence of admitting his guilt.
Ruddy was one of two men arrested by police after they were stopped in the Lagmore area of Belfast on January 31 last year.
Whilst co-accused Sean Megaw (27) from Dunmurry denied the charge and was subsequently acquitted following a non-jury Diplock trial, Ruddy pleaded guilty to possessing the explosive device and component parts.
The court heard that police were in patrol in the Lagmore/Dunmurry/Poleglass area on the evening in question when they were alerted to the presence of a Nissan Qashqai. Megaw was in the drivers seat, and while the officers were speaking to him, Ruddy was seen turning a corner into the cul de sac.
Ruddy was seen to throw certain items in a plastic bag over a garden hedge, and when he was approached by police, he said there was a pipe bomb in the car. The Nissan was searched and nothing was found.
When the area was later searched, a black bag containing pipe bomb components including a bolt and four modified lengths of pipe were found in a hedge, while a pipe bomb was found in a garden.
During a previous hearing, defence barrister Terence McDonald QC said his client had made a "dreadful error of judgement".
Mr McDonald also revealed that since entering a guilty plea in the summer Ruddy had "been subjected to a "campaign of psychological and physical harm as a direct consequence of the action he took in acknowledging his guilt to this offence."
