A BELFAST man who lost three fingers after a bomb he was transporting through the city exploded prematurely was jailed for seven years by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday.
Gerard Moyna (45), Ardmonagh Parade, Belfast, fled to Co Donegal after suffering injuries in the blast. He pleaded guilty to the unlawful possession of 2.28 kg of Semtex, a timing unit and two detonators at College Avenue, Belfast, on May 10th, 1997.
Moyna was charged under the Republic's Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act of 1976 which allows suspects to be tried in Irish courts for offences committed in the North. He elected for trial in Dublin before the Special Criminal Court.
Supt Joe Shelly, Athlone, told the court the RUC investigated a car on College Avenue on May 10th, 1997, after receiving an anonymous call that there was a bomb.
A British army bomb disposal team found a sports bag containing a shoe box in which they found the Semtex, detonators and a timing unit.
The detonators had exploded prematurely causing scorch damage and there were bloodstains in the car. At 11.30 p.m. Moyna and another man arrived at a doctor's surgery in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal.
The doctor treated him for injuries to his right hand which had three fingers missing and referred him to Sligo General Hospital.
Moyna went to the casualty department and was arrested there by gardai. He told gardai he injured himself with fireworks on a beach at Bundoran, but a search revealed no trace of fireworks on the beach. Fragments of a detonator recovered from his hands matched the detonators found in the bomb in Belfast.
Supt Shelly said Moyna had a number of previous convictions, including possession of a firearm in Belfast in 1985 for which he was jailed for 10 years.
The superintendent said the bomb was in transit when the detonators exploded and, if it had reached its intended destination, would have caused considerable damage.