Man jailed over NI feud car bomb

Police captured Curry on CCTV near Mr Thompson's home

A train driver who planted a car bomb in Bolton as part of a terrorist feud which spilled over from Northern Ireland has been jailed for 20 years.

Stanley Curry, 47, took part in the attack on a friend of former paramilitary leader Johnny Adair.

Curry, from Birmingham, had put the bomb under the car of John Thompson, but part of it fell off.

Curry was found guilty at Preston Crown Court of conspiring to cause an explosion. He had denied the charge.

The attack was a result of reprisals between warring factions of loyalist UDA groups in Northern Ireland.

Mr Thompson, a former UDA lieutenant nicknamed "Fat Jackie" by his comrades, fled to Bolton in February 2003 after a feud among loyalist terror groups in Belfast.

A simulated explosion showed the damage the bomb could have done

Mr Adair had been a commander of the West Belfast 'C' Company of the Ulster Freedom Fighters which had broken ranks with the rest of the UFF.

John Gregg and Robert Carson, members of the opposing faction, were then shot dead in a taxi in Belfast.

Curry, originally from Moreton on the Wirral, blamed "Adair's lot" for the killings, he told police.

A bomb was placed under Thompson's red Ford Escort, which was parked outside his home in Halliwell, Bolton, on 16 December 2003.

'Potentially fatal'

He got into the car to go to work and after going over a speed bump heard a loud bang.

A small detonator had exploded, but not with enough force to set off the bomb, which was placed directly under the driver's seat.

Trial prosecutor Mark Ellison had said: "It was only that technical failure, clearly we suggest wholly unintended by those intending to blow him up, that enabled him to walk away from what would have been very serious injuries or death."

Curry hired a van the day before the bomb was discovered and was caught on CCTV near Mr Thompson's home.

Painstaking work

Police carried out a simulated explosion on a similar-sized car, using a similar-sized device to the one found, to show the damage which could have been caused if the bomb had detonated.

Ch Supt Dave Lea, from Greater Manchester Police, said: "It was fortunate that this device did not explode properly as Mr Thompson could have been left with potentially fatal injuries.

"A dedicated team of officers were deployed to piece together the events surrounding the bomb being placed and identify the person responsible.

"It involved hours of painstaking work to identify relevant CCTV images. Forensic teams also spent hours re-constructing the device in a bid to trace any DNA evidence, which may have been left behind."