Three found guilty of Real IRA bomb campaign

Three Irish terrorists were convicted at the Old Bailey today of plotting a Real IRA bombing campaign in mainland Britain – endangering life and severely damaging property.

They were frontliners in a conspiracy responsible for car bomb attacks on three busy centres on Saturday nights during 2001.

The first was on the BBC Television centre in March, then in Ealing Broadway, west London, in August and finally in Smallbrook, Queensway, Birmingham in November.

Brothers Robert Hulme, 23, and Aiden Hulme, 25, together with Noel Maguire, 34, had denied conspiring to cause explosions between January 1 and November 15, 2001.

Two other men, James McCormack, 34, from Co. Louth, and John Hannan, 19, from Newtown Butler, Co. Fermanagh, have admitted the charge.

"It was nothing short of a miracle that no pedestrians or others in clubs and pubs nearby did not suffer fatal injuries," Orlando Pownall QC, prosecuting, had told the jury. But several were injured and millions of pounds of damage was caused.

All three terrorists will be sentenced tomorrow.

The bombers were discovered during an undercover Customs and Excise investigation into a fuel tax fiddle.

The Irishmen were using a diesel washing gang based in remote farmhouses in Yorkshire as a cover. The gang removed red dye from cheaper–taxed agricultural diesel and sold it on to dealers at normal diesel rates for profit.

The Customs men alerted the Anti–Terrorist branch. When armed officers moved in, they discovered another car bomb at a farm in West Yorkshire almost "ready to go".

A grenade, gun, ammunition, detonators and a timing unit were found inside the silver Vauxhall Cavalier.

Robert Hulme was arrested at Canada Dock, Liverpool, on board a ferry destined for Ireland. He was fleeing after hearing of the arrest of a member of the diesel washing gang.

Northern Ireland police arrested Aiden Hulme, McCormack and Hannan.

Maguire was arrested at an address in Cornwallis Avenue, Edmonton, north London. A 73–year–old housewife contacted police after seeing an E–fit released by police following the Ealing bomb – leading them to the house he was using in London.

Today's convictions focus new attention on dissident Irish Republican groups – which anti–terrorist detectives believe still pose a high and immediate threat in the UK.

The mainland is their target of choice and a very high priority, according to a senior police officer.

Although the RIRA cell which plotted the attacks on the three busy centres on Saturday nights during 2001 are now behind bars, there are fears that another republican terror group may still be active.