Jailed, couple with ‘Mother of Satan’ bombs in fridge
A COUPLE who turned their home into a “bomb-making factory” with a stash of homemade explosives in their fridge have been jailed.
Edward Harris, 27, admitted making and possessing two explosive substances and having information likely to be useful to a person preparing acts of terrorism.
His partner, mother-of-two Natalie Parsons, 51, also admitted possessing the explosives but denied having terrorist material.
At an Old Bailey hearing, Mr Justice Sweeney sentenced Harris to five years in jail plus two years on extended licence and Parsons to two years jail.
The judge said the couple’s Cardiff house, where Parsons’ grown-up son and daughter also lived, was “more akin to a bomb-making factory than a residential property”.
Acting on a tip-off, counter-terrorism police searched the couple’s home on August 29. Harris told officers: “There is something in the fridge. When you set it alight, it goes poof. I’m in the **** aren’t I? I only made it for someone else.”
They also found bomb-making manuals entitled Preparatory Manual for Explosives. The explosives Harris made were both “extremely sensitive and unstable primary high explosives,” the court was told.
Officers uncovered explosives TATP (triacetone triperoxide) – known as “Mother of Satan”.
Mr Justice Sweeney added: “I have no doubt that the explosives, in particular TATP, were not made out of entirely scientific interest.”
Although there was no terrorist motivation and Harris was said to be on the autism spectrum, the judge found he was a “dangerous offender” in light of his “persistent” interest in explosives.