A SCOTTISH man has been sentenced to four years for sending two hoax bomb threat e-mails to Heathrow airport purporting to be from the Scottish National Liberation Army (SNLA).
Adam Busby (61), was convicted 13 years ago of a similar offence where he made threatening phone threats to Scottish media organisations.
The court heard that other threats and acts of terrorism claiming to be from the SNLA have originated in Ireland since Busby’s arrival here but he is not facing charges or extradition over these.
They include threatening the water supply in Manchester and sending vodka bottles to politicians and journalists in England which contained caustic soda.
Busby with an address at Santry Lodge, Ballymun, had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of sending hoax messages, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety, at Charleville Mall Public Library, North Strand on May 8th and 15th, 2006.
He was convicted by a jury last month and has been in custody since Judge Desmond Hogan said it was a serious offence but on the lower end of the scale because the airport authorities did not believe it to be a credible threat, “partly due to Mr Busby’s activities in the past”.
He said the e-mail addresses used by Busby, SNLAcell_at_yahoo.com and freedom.cell_at_yahoo.com, were “to convey to the authorities that these were being sent by serious people with serious intent”.
However, he noted Busby’s age and serious health problems and suspended the final two years of the sentence.
Det Supt Diarmuid O’Sullivan told prosecuting counsel, Dominic McGinn, that both e-mails made threats against specific transatlantic flights and named their flight numbers.
Both e-mails were sent while the flights were in the air but security services decided no action needed to be taken.
Det Supt O’Sullivan said due to Busby’s “previous activities” the threat was judged to be minimal and neither the flight crews nor the ground crews were notified.
Investigators traced the e-mails back to a Dublin public library in Charleville Mall which Busby frequented. A log book of bookings for the public computers and CCTV footage showed he was the sender.
Busby, who suffers from chronic multiple sclerosis, came to Ireland in 1980 after he was charged with criminal damage on the property of the English ministry of defence.
Det Supt O’Sullivan said he had numerous previous convictions in Scotland but these were all for minor offences such as breaching the peace.
In 1997 he was convicted in the Special Criminal Court of making threatening phone calls to the Press Association in Scotland and the Scottish Daily Record.
He was sentenced to two years on each count.
The court heard the SNLA was founded in 1980 with the aim of “using coercive intimidation to further the cause of Scottish independence”.
It was made illegal in Ireland in 2005 and the organisation has been responsible for bombs, letter bombs and anthrax threats over the years.
One recent incident involved sending over 1,000 e-mails to the White House.
Defence counsel, Cormac Quinn, said Busby was not facing charges for being in the SNLA and there was no extradition proceedings pending against him.
He said due to his illness, his client was finding prison very difficult.
He said he was wheelchair-bound and suffered from speech difficulties.