Jailed for 18 years, Marine sleeper agent who built bombs for Irish terrorists
A TERRORIST who infiltrated the Royal Marines and built bombs for dissident Republicans was jailed for 18 years yesterday.
Ciaran Maxwell, 31, plotted a deadly campaign across Northern Ireland – his 300 targets included military bases, high-profile Unionists and top police officers.
The young father exploited lax security to smuggle an arsenal of weapons into Northern Ireland from his home in Exminster, Devon, over five years.
He buried pipe bombs, guns, ammunition, chemicals and 100kg of high explosives at 43 woodland locations in England and Northern Ireland.
Police chiefs admit it is likely that some of his bombs are still in the hands of Continuity IRA members. Four of the devices have been used in Maxwell’s hometown of Larne, Northern Ireland, but no one has been killed or injured.
Doug Beattie, a former Royal Irish Regiment captain who is now an Ulster Unionist Party politician, said: ‘We could have been looking at loss of life perpetrated at the hands of a serving soldier of the British military.
‘If we don’t have a look at our security checks and how we vet people before they join the military, we’re going to have problems in the future.’
The Royal Navy rejected suggestions there was a failure of vetting. A spokesman said: ‘All security personnel are subject to security checking prior to employment and at regular intervals throughout their careers.’
Maxwell showed no emotion as he was sentenced at the Old Bailey yesterday via video link from HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes. Mr Justice Sweeney told him that, if successful, his bombing campaign could have threatened the security of Northern Ireland.
Extending Maxwell’s sentence because of his terrorist allegiances, the judge said: ‘The acts of terrorism were to be carried out by the dissident Republican group the Continuity IRA including attacks on police officers, police stations and upon others with the intention to kill and to seriously injure. There was clearly the potential for the deployment of many bombs of varying types and sizes against multiple targets, the ultimate intent of those planting the devices being to kill.
‘To state the obvious, a skilled bombmaker is of considerable importance to a terrorist organisation like the Continuity IRA.’ The judge said there was ‘insufficient evidence to be sure’ Maxwell had a ‘sinister motivation’ for joining the Royal Marines – but within a year he was involved in preparing acts of terrorism.
He signed up in September 2010, and moved to 40 Commando three years later, initially as a signaller.
Despite a chaotic education marred by alcohol and drug abuse, he appeared to thrive, boasting of his tough exploits to friends online. He was due to be promoted to corporal at the time of his arrest at Taunton’s Norton Manor Camp in August last year.
He was stealing weapons and supplementing them with purchases from eBay and Amazon. His deceit began to unravel in March last year when a walker discovered two barrels buried in the ground at Carnfunnock Country Park in Northern Ireland.
Three months later, a similar stash was uncovered at nearby Capanagh Forest by a British Army sergeant looking for a spot for a family camping pitch.
Inside the barrels were handguns, ammunition, land mines and pipe bombs. Forensic tests uncovered Maxwell’s DNA and he was put under surveillance, leading officers to another stash at Powderham plantation near Exminster.
Maxwell carefully researched potential targets, recording images of police stations, military bases and power stations marked with a blast radius graphic.
He built the bombs at his grandmother’s house and supplied them to the Continuity IRA via child-
‘Intending to kill and injure’ ‘Alcohol and drug abuse’
hood friend Niall Lehd. Lehd was sentenced to six years in prison in 2014 for planting a Maxwell-made pipe bomb outside a house in Larne.
The court heard the Marine’s motivation might lie in a brutal sectarian attack he suffered aged 16; he was beaten by loyalists with golf clubs, iron bars and hammers and left in a field for dead.
In an interview with the Republican newspaper An Phoblacht his parents accused police of not taking attacks on Catholics seriously.
His lawyer Paul Hynes QC suggested he then fell into the thrall of a powerful figure in the Catholic community who recruited young men through violence.
Maxwell will not be eligible for parole until he has served two thirds of his 18-year sentence. He was also given an extended licence period of five years.
Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Martin, of the Police Service Northern Ireland, said Maxwell was an accomplished bombmaker. He added: ‘If he had gone undetected, those bombs would have made their way into the hands of violent dissident Republican groupings.’