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22/03/2002
Top loyalist gets three years for hoax bomb call
A leading loyalist who made a hoax bomb call about Holy Cross primary school has been jailed for three years.
Sitting at Belfast Crown Court on Friday 22 March, presiding judge Lord Justice McCollum jailed Gary Smith, 38, from Colombia Street in Belfast, for three years following his hoax call to the troubled primary school.
Police arrested Mr Smith on June 25 2001 after he placed a hoax bomb call to the primary school using the cover name of the Red Hand Defenders. He was unaware that he was being watched as undercover police waited to re-arrest him for breaching his prison release under the Good Friday Agreement.
Mr Smith is only the second prisoner - after UFF leader Johnny Adair - to have his licence revoked.
Lord Justice McCollum said that while he believed Smith was motivated by a "degree of malevolence" he did not believe he was a planner or leader, and that he was more of a "person of impulsive and reckless temperament, easily prevailed upon" to do the bidding of others.
Following the hoax call, army bomb experts found a suspect package placed inside the railings of the Ardoyne girls' school, which was found to be a hoax device. (AMcE)
Sitting at Belfast Crown Court on Friday 22 March, presiding judge Lord Justice McCollum jailed Gary Smith, 38, from Colombia Street in Belfast, for three years following his hoax call to the troubled primary school.
Police arrested Mr Smith on June 25 2001 after he placed a hoax bomb call to the primary school using the cover name of the Red Hand Defenders. He was unaware that he was being watched as undercover police waited to re-arrest him for breaching his prison release under the Good Friday Agreement.
Mr Smith is only the second prisoner - after UFF leader Johnny Adair - to have his licence revoked.
Lord Justice McCollum said that while he believed Smith was motivated by a "degree of malevolence" he did not believe he was a planner or leader, and that he was more of a "person of impulsive and reckless temperament, easily prevailed upon" to do the bidding of others.
Following the hoax call, army bomb experts found a suspect package placed inside the railings of the Ardoyne girls' school, which was found to be a hoax device. (AMcE)
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