15 YEARS EACH FOR MORTAR BOMB TRIO; Terrorists jailed for 'sinister' plot to kill police.

Byline: MIRROR REPORTER

THREE men who admitted having a potentially lethal, armour-piercing mortar bomb were yesterday jailed for a total of 45 years.

Damien William McKenna, 26, 24-year-old Gary Toman and Sean Gerard McConville, 23, each received 15-year sentences.

Belfast Crown Court judge Mr Justice Treacy said the Lurgan men were "on any showing, all deeply implicated in the sinister events" which led to the discovery of the mortar bomb, support frame and propulsion unit in a field near the Co Armagh town on April 5, 2007.

He added: "Those who are seduced by the false glamour of terrorism, perhaps those too young to remember or blinded to its horrific consequences, should not allow themselves to be deluded.

"Upon conviction they face lengthy deterrent sentences." As the three were led to the cells, the packed public gallery erupted into cheers and applause with a Tricolour being held aloft as men and women shouted "up the 'Ra".

McKenna, from Dean's Walk, Toman, from Drumnamoe Avenue and McConville, from Kilwilkie Road, were all linked to the deadly improvised device by forensic evidence after they were arrested close to the field where it was found.

Each pleaded guilty to possession with intent to endanger life and the prosecution decided not to proceed on a charge of conspiring to cause an explosion.

Designed to explode on impact, the court was told the device was "capable of causing severe damage to an armoured vehicle, thus inflicting injury or possible death". Defence lawyers said the three had instructed to be in the field in order to check and conceal the device but the judge recounted surveillance evidence from military personnel and from a helicopter which proved they had all been in the field for over half an hour.

He told the court that any acceptance of the role the defendants tried to ascribe themselves would "require an astonishing degree of naivety" and added that the only mitigating factor he could see in the case was their guilty pleas which had been "belated".

On March 29 when the men were arrested near the junction of the Cornakinnegar and North Circular Road in Lurgan, officers noted that they all had wet and dirty trousers and footwear.

Their clothing was seized and sent for forensic testing while a search of the field was carried out. In McKenna's pocket, police found a circuit tester with wire, a pair of wire cutters, a wire stripper and gloves while inside the car, police uncovered four large, square batteries.

Although the field was searched for two days, the mortar bomb was not found until April 5, eventually being uncovered underneath dead, loose grass and an Army ammunitions technical officer had to make the device safe using a controlled explosion.

In a statement released by police after the case, Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris said "their aim was to kill police officers in Lurgan with a live mortar bomb."

" The head of the PSNI's Crime Operations Department added: "The stark reality is that had their plan been successful, they could have caused death and serious injury not only to police officers but to members of the local community - they showed complete disregard for human life."

SEVEN

THE NUMBER OF DAYS BETWEEN THE TRIO'S ARREST AND DISCOVERY OF WEAPON

DEVICE

WAS MADE SAFE BY THE ARMY FOLLOWING A CONTROLLED EXPLOSION