Judge gives two men six years for possessing pipe bomb

Two Dublin men who admitted having a pipe bomb on the city's northside were sentenced to six years imprisonment, with the final three years suspended, by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today.

Christopher Mc Carthy (aged 29) of the The Vale, Woodfarm Acres, Palmerstown and Daniel McFaul (aged 22), of Croftwood Crescent, Ballyfermot had pleaded guilty last year to the unlawful possession of an improvised explosive device containing nitro cellulose and a timing power unit at Belcamp Crescent, Dublin on January 20, 2005.

Detective Superintendent Diarmuid O' Sullivan of the Special Detective Unit told the court that gardaí mounted a surveillance operation after receiving confidential information that the Continuity IRA intended to carry out an operation at Belcamp Crescent on the night in question.

He said that McCarthy was the driver of a motorbike which arrived at Belcamp Crescent in Darndale in the early hours of January 20 last year.

The passenger, McFaul, got off the bike and headed towards Belcamp Crescent but later got back on the motorbike.

A short time later the same bike returned and McFaul was seen getting off the bike again and walking across a green area towards a van parked in the driveway of a house.

Gardaí observed him removing what appeared to be a lunch box from a satchel and putting it under the van.

Both men tried to escape when they realised gardai were present but were arrested.

The Army EOD team carried out two controlled explosions on the suspicious device under the van and people were evacuated from their homes.

The components of the device were recovered including a Tupperware box, a 9-volt battery and a pipe bomb with electrical wires protruding from it. It was forensically examined and found to contain nitro cellulose.

Sentencing the men, Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, said that the court regarded it as a very serious offence and that a "live device" capable of causing serious harm was involved.

The judge said, however, that the court regarded with "great significance" undertakings given under oath by both men that they would not engage in unlawful activity or illegal organisations and in the circumstances would suspend the final three years of the six years sentence imposed on each man.