A man claimed Bootle Strand shopping centre would be blown up in one of a series of hoax calls to police.
Kevin Mellon made numerous calls to Merseyside Police and the national anti-terror hotline over a number of days in June last year claiming the IRA was set to launch a a bombing campaign in England. Liverpool Crown Court heard the 42 year old was so drunk and his mental health problems so severe that he gave police his own name and address during the bizarre calls.
Mellon, originally from Derry in Northern Ireland, had been using drugs, drinking heavily and had stopped taking medication for his mental health conditions at the time the calls were made and police never believed they were genuine. Philip Astbury, prosecuting, said Mellon made a series of calls from his home on Milton Street in Bootle from June 22 to June 24 last year.
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In his first call he told Merseyside Police that the IRA were planning to bomb Bootle New Strand. Police suspected from the outset the call was a hoax and, after investigating, determined the building didn’t need to be evacuated.
Mellon then became frustrated and started to call the Metropolitan Police’s anti-terror hotline. He told them, in a series of calls, that bombs containing a thousand pounds of Semtex were set to be detonated in Manchester, Stockport and London. Again, call handlers didn’t believe the warnings were genuine.
Mr Astbury said: “When pressed, the call handler found his account was contradictory and thought he was drunk.” He added that on numerous occasions Mellon actually provided police with his own name and address, allowing him to be traced.
When police arrived at his home they found he had numerous pictures of IRA paraphernalia but said he himself did not pose a threat. He was arrested and charged for the hoax calls and pleaded guilty earlier this year.
Mellon has a range of previous convictions, including for robbery and assault, mainly committed while he was living in Northern Ireland. He has also previous been convicted of sending malicious communications to an ex partner.
Ian Harris, defending, said Mellon has significant mental health issues and had not been taking his medication at the time of the offences.
The judge, Robert Trevor-Jones, said he would reduce Mellon’s sentence significantly and suspend it to take into account his serious mental health problems. He said: “On the face of it they all appeared to be terrorist-related bomb threats. That said, it is quite clear, and accepted by the prosecution, that they were not registered as genuine calls and they were attributed as hoax calls from the start.”
Mellon was handed an 18 month jail term suspended for 18 months.
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