A former public schoolboy who caused a major bomb

A former public schoolboy who caused a major bomb alert when he
posted a hoax device to his local poll-tax office was jailed for six
months on Thursday.

Streets in Stoke Newington were sealed off and traffic chaos
reigned for two and a half hours when carpentry student Guy Henderson,
32, sent the fake letter bomb to the Hackney community charge office
in Stoke Newington Church Street.

Henderson, of Dalston Lane, Hackney, pleaded guilty to
dispatching an article with criminal intent.

Passing sentence Judge Robert Southan related how Henderson – a
former pupil of Milton Abbas public school, Dorset, ‘manufactured what
looked like a letter bomb’ before sending it to his local community
charge office.

‘Police were called and as a result the building was then
evacuated.

Police officers had to be taken from their duties and
deployed.

‘Traffic was held up lasting for hours.

All that was the result
of your activity in sending that object through the post.

‘
The judge read psychiatric reports and took into account
Henderson’s history of depression but added: ‘The public have
to be protected from people who send hoax bombs through the post
whether driven by malice or feelings of depression.

‘
Judge Southan jailed smartly dressed Henderson for six months.

The court had heard how on January 22 this year an administrative
assistant opened a ‘bulky’ envelope containing the fake bomb.

It consisted of silver foil, a black top, and various wires, said
Mr Richard Briden, prosecuting.

It was attached to part of a poll-tax book on which had been
scrawled the words ‘F**k off and die.

‘
Police were called and ‘disruption was caused by the security
measures that were put in force,’ continued counsel.

Some 130 people including staff and members of the public were
evacuated from the Hackney Council building and roads in the vicinity
were cordoned off while traffic was disrupted for two and a half
hours.

Henderson was arrested in February after his address was traced
from a bar code on part of the poll-tax book that he had sent with the
fake bomb.

Quizzed by detectives he at one stage replied: ‘How are people
supposed to peacefully demonstrate against the poll-tax?’
Mr Peter Lodder, defending, said that Henderson ‘bitterly
regretted what he did and simply did not understand the consequences
of his action.

‘
Counsel told the court that Henderson had previously been
surrounded by members of his family who suffered mental break-downs
and he had himself suffered psychological problems.

Mr Lodder said that there was no suggestion that the offence was
a ‘political gesture’.

‘It was an impetuous, abusive but misguided and ill thought out
expression of his own turmoil.

‘This was a hastily put together crude hoax.

‘
The court was told that Henderson, who had written abusive notes
to the council concerning the community charge in the past, had a
single previous conviction for threatening behaviour relating to an
offence he carried out during the Trafalgar Square poll-tax riot on
March 31 1990.

ENDS