German court jails ex-IRA man for British base attack

A FORMER IRA member was jailed for six years yesterday over a plot to blow up a British military base in Germany.

Leonard ‘Bap’ Hardy, aged 45, was sentenced after being found guilty of attempted murder in connection with the failed 1989 strike on Quebec barracks at Osnabrueck.

Hardy, from Co Antrim, and married to prominent republican Donna Maguire, was also convicted of deliberately causing an explosion.

He was arrested last August in the Spanish resort of Torremolinos and extradited to Germany in January.

Scotland Yard was believed to be involved in the surveillance operation to seize Hardy, who was imprisoned here for five years in 1990 after being caught getting off a ferry in Rosslare with explosives.

According to reports from the German state court in the central town of Celle, where the trial was held, he is not expected to appeal.

The attack on Osnabrueck was one of a series carried out by the IRA on British soldiers in Germany during the 1980s and 1990s.

Four other members of the IRA’s active service unit blamed for the bombing were convicted of attempted murder in 1995.

They were jailed for between nine and 12 years.

Prosecutors said the five wanted to detonate several bombs at the barracks but were disturbed by a workman as they tried to lay the charges.

Only one of the bombs exploded, damaging the base but causing no injuries.

Hardy refused to reveal if others were involved in the attack or where the group obtained an estimated 120kg of military-grade plastic explosives.