Injured bomb-maker jailed

There was a huge explosion at the house in Brynna

A man who blew off his own hands while making a bomb in a south Wales house has been jailed for 15 years.

Jonathan Griffiths, 42, and his friend Geoffrey Wildy, 58, were both found guilty of having explosives with intent to endanger life and with carrying out an act designed to cause an explosion at Cardiff Crown Court.

Emergency services investigated the blast

Wildy was also sentenced to 15 years for the offences.

Griffiths, from Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, not only lost his hands but also injured his abdomen, genitalia and perforated his eardrums when a device using military plastic explosives blew up at Wildy's home in Brynna, near Bridgend, south Wales, on 4 October 2001.

Greg Bull, prosecuting, told the court that the two friends planned to "settle an old score" by sending devices to Ken Jones of Dinas Powys, near Cardiff, whom the pair claimed owed them £6,500, and another associate, Gary Smolinski, of Penylan, Cardiff.

Bomb expertise

The court heard Griffiths had said his injuries were entirely of his own making, and the result of his own stupidity.

But he said he had not meant to kill anybody.

Wildy denied helping Griffiths make a bomb, and claimed he did not know what Griffiths was doing in the kitchen, even though he was only in the next room at the time.

But the prosecution said Wildy - who had previously worked with Mr Griffiths in the oil business in Libya - had the expertise to help construct the bombs.

The jury did not believe them, and found them guilty of planning to cause an explosion.

Sentencing, the judge said Griffiths had invented a "cock and bull story" about how he acquired the bomb-making equipment, including the restricted-use plastic explosive known as PE4.

Griffiths had admitted a charge of having an explosive substance.

Judge McKenna added that both men had lied to the jury and had intended to send two letter bombs that would have endangered life.