Man blew up wife’s car with homemade bomb

A BRITISH man wired a homemade bomb to his wife’s car after he started an affair with a woman he met on the internet, a court was told yesterday.

Engineer Robert Bottom, 36, told his wife Caroline he was fitting a hands-free mobile phone in her Peugeot car parked at their home in Chattenden, Rochester in Kent on Christmas Eve last year, Maidstone Crown Court was told.

Later that night Mrs Bottom, who works as a carer of the elderly, was driving home from a visit when there was "an almighty explosion", the court heard yesterday.

Despite severe damage to the car, Mrs Bottom walked away with only minor injuries.

Bottom, of Green Close, Hawkinge, Kent, pleaded guilty to causing an explosion likely to endanger life and cause serious injury to property. A second charge of attempted murder was left on file.

Robin Johnson, prosecuting, said the couple had met in 1994 and married in Barbados four years before the incident.

But Bottom met another woman on the internet through his interest in caravaning and had started an affair with her.

Mr Johnson told the court: "This was a deliberate plan to cause an explosion of his wife's car while she was out driving it on public roads."

He said Bottom had connected the device to the car's wiring system.

Mr Johnson said: "There was an explosion in her car of sufficient force to blow out the sunroof, back windscreen and distort the whole front of the car.

"Miraculously, although there was extensive damage, she was not badly physically injured."

On hearing what happened, Bottom went to the car and got into it to drive away despite the fact it was badly damaged.

Mr Johnson said: "Mrs Bottom thought to herself, bearing in mind the state she was in, he was remarkably calm and his first preoccupation was to see the car rather than comfort his wife."

At the time, the explosion was put down to an electrical fault by Bottom and no further action was taken by police.

In the New Year, Bottom left his wife telling her he did not want to be married and that they had "drifted apart", Mr Johnson told the court.

Having had the car inspected later, Mrs Bottom wrote to the police about her suspicions, prompting an investigation.

A forensic explosives examination in April showed the damage was caused by an explosion and Bottom was arrested at his new home in Hawkinge, where he was living with his new partner.

Bottom told police he had bought some theatrical maroons in November from a disco shop in Gillingham and that one must have fallen out of his pocket.

A maroon a three centimetre long plastic container with flash powder in it and two wires coming from it had been initiated in the car to cause the explosion, Mr Johnson said.

The case was adjourned until today.