Three members of a "Real IRA" cell were convicted of plotting a bombing campaign in Britain yesterday as police warned that dissident Irish republicans remained an immediate threat to the UK.
Despite public attention focusing on the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism and a backlash to the Iraq war, the head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch, Assistant Deputy Commissioner Peter Clarke, said: "The threats from Irish dissident republican terrorists remains high and continues to be a great concern to us."
Five front-line members of the "Real IRA" cell operating inside Britain during 2001 will be sentenced today for their parts in plotting a bombing campaign to take life, maim and destroy property.
The first attack was on the BBC Television Centre, in March, then in Ealing Broadway, west London, in August, and finally in Smallbrook, Queensway, Birmingham, in November.
Brothers Robert (23) and Aiden Hulme (25), together with Noel Maguire (34), had denied conspiring to cause explosions between January 1st and November 15th, 2001. Two other men, James McCormack (34), from Co Louth, and John Hannan (19), from Newtown Butler, Co Fermanagh, admitted the charge. Hannan was 17 at the time and is thought to be one of the youngest terrorists to appear before a British court.
"It was nothing short of a miracle that no pedestrians or others in clubs and pubs nearby did not suffer fatal injuries," Mr Orlando Pownall QC, prosecuting, said of the campaign. But several people were injured and millions of pounds of damage was caused.
The bombers were discovered during an undercover Customs and Excise investigation into a fuel tax fiddle. They were using a "diesel washing" gang based in remote farmhouses in Yorkshire as a cover. The gang removed red dye from lower-tax agricultural diesel and sold it on to dealers at normal diesel rates for profit.
The Customs men alerted the Anti-Terrorist Branch. When armed officers moved in, they discovered another car-bomb at a farm in west Yorkshire "almost ready to go".
Robert Hulme was arrested at Canada Dock, Liverpool, on board a ferry destined for Ireland. He was fleeing after hearing of the arrest of a member of the diesel washing gang. Police in Northern Ireland arrested Aiden Hulme, McCormack and Hannan.
Maguire was arrested at an address in Cornwallis Avenue, Edmonton, north London. A 73-year-old housewife contacted police after seeing an E-fit released by police following the Ealing bomb, leading them to the house he was using in London.
Each of the three bomb attacks had identical features. They were all left in vehicles, used home-made explosive mixtures and had similar timing mechanisms. The same code word was used when warnings were given.
The jury heard lengthy and complex mobile telephone evidence which showed links between the defendants and the explosions.
On the day of the BBC bomb, there had been "significant contact" between mobile phones used by Maguire and Aiden Hulme. Cell site information showed that Maguire's phone had been in the area of a yard in north London where the taxi used in the BBC bomb was bought. His thumbprints were subsequently discovered on one of the notes handed over for the cab.
Robert Hulme was also convicted of possessing a timer and three detonators with intent to cause an explosion. Maguire was acquitted of that charge. Both Robert Hulme and Maguire were cleared of two other charges alleging possession of a hand grenade and a revolver.
The jury had been out considering the verdicts for a week. The trial lasted 10 weeks.
Both Hulme brothers spoke quickly to each other in the dock after they were convicted of the conspiracy, but none of the three showed any emotion. - (PA)