Dissident pleads guilty over 200lb bomb (UTV)
A self-confessed dissident republican from Derry has been remanded back into custody on Thursday, after he pleaded guilty to attacking the city’s Strand Road PSNI Station with a car bomb.
Following defence applications at Belfast Crown Court, 43-year-old Philip O’Donnell pleaded guilty to causing an explosion likely to endanger life on 3 August, 2010.
O’Donnell, from Baldrick Crescent, also pleaded guilty to hijacking the taxi which contained the 200lb device, falsely imprisoning the taxi driver and either belonging to or “professing to belong” to dissident republican group Óglaigh na hÉireann.
He pleaded guilty to two further charges of attempted hijacking in the two days before the terrorist attack.
No-one was injured in the deadly attack, claimed by dissident republican group Óglaigh na hÉireann, but several businesses were badly damaged.
On Thursday, the Recorder of Belfast Judge Tom Burgess adjourned passing sentence until pre-sentence probation reports have been compiled and also until the case against O’Donnell’s co-accused is completed.
Martin McLoone, aged 23 and from Abercorn Road in Derry, is in custody awaiting trial as he maintains his not guilty pleas to the charges.
9 feb
irlanda del nord, News