Airport bomb hoaxer sentence halved

The mobile phone call sparked a full-scale alert

A teenager from mid Wales who made a hoax bomb call to Heathrow airport four days after the 11 September terrorist attacks in the US has had his sentence halved.

Three judges sitting at the Appeal Court in London reduced student Alexander Farrer Walters' sentence from two years to 12 months on Tuesday.

Walters' SIM card was found discarded in a bin

Russian-born Walters, who is now 19, has already served six months in prison for making the call and it is understood he is now elegible for release under the electronic tagging system.

He was jailed last November after Merthyr Crown Court was told his mobile phone call had prompted a major security alert at a time of heightened anxiety following the attacks in New York and Washington by terrorist plane hijackers.

At one point the authorities had even considered the temporary closure of Heathrow - one of the world's biggest airports.

The teenager, who moved from to the small village of Trallwn near Brecon two years ago, told police he had made the call as a "joke" while out walking his dog.

The court heard that Walters told the exchange operator at the airport: "There's a bomb at Heathrow Airport - you've got exactly one hour."

The operator was said to be "concerned and extremely distressed" at the call because it came so soon after the US terrorist attacks.

The hoax call came four days after 11 September

Senior officials at Heathrow carried out an immediate risk assessment in response to the alert, but decided not to close the airport.

The call was traced to a mobile telephone belonging to the Coleg Powys student, who was walking near his home at Trallwn.

Police later found the phone in a tin of sweets, while the SIM card containing a log of calls was discarded in a rubbish bin.

Walters admitted making the hoax call but claimed he had not expected the act to become so serious.

"I did not think there would be such a reaction - it was just a joke, just a silly joke," he told the court.

Intense remorse

The court was Walters spent much of his childhood in Russian orphanages, from which he had emerged "traumatised".

He came to England when he was 10, and was later adopted by a mid Wales vicar, whom he had met while at Lichfield Cathedral School.

Psychiatric and pre-sentencing reports indicated he felt intense remorse over his actions.

A prolonged spell in custody might lead to a severe psychological reaction, the court was told.

Following his appeal against sentence on Tuesday the judges imposed a reduced sentence of 12 months detention.