Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LONE WOLF LURED COPS INTO KILL ZONE
Bomber jailed for 16yrs as officer says he is ‘lucky to be alive’ after attack
A POLICE officer nearly killed when twisted bomber Christine Connor threw two homemade grenades at him feels “very lucky to be alive”.
The cop spoke out after the lone-wolf dissident was jailed for 16 years yesterday for the 2013 North Belfast terror attack. The officer, who was lured into a kill-zone by Connor, said: “I will never forget that night but it has made me more determined to do my job.”
A WOMAN who posed as a Swedish model online to trick two men into supporting her attempts to kill police was jailed for 16 years yesterday.
Described by the PSNI as a “dangerous woman”, unemployed Christine Connor, 31, exploited the men to further “her own twisted ideologies”. Both later took their own lives. A staunch republican with “violent dissident ideologies”, police said she was acting alone when she threw pipe bombs at officers she lured to the Crumlin Road area of Belfast on May 28, 2013. But she was helped in her efforts by “vulnerable” Englishman Stuart Downes, who was facing trial alongside her before being found dead near his Shrewsbury home on June 24 last year. Branded “manipulative” when she appeared at Belfast Crown Court for sentencing yesterday, Connor smiled and waved at family and friends in the public gallery as she was imprisoned for terrorist offences. Judge David Mcfarland told her the Parole Commission will decide if she is eligible for release after she has served half her sentence. She will spend an additional three years and eight months on supervised licence when she is freed. Her name will also appear on the Antiterrorist list for 30 years. Passing sentence, Judge Mcfarland said while elements of the case were “bizarre”, he branded her crimes as “sinister” and told Connor: “You remain a danger to the public.” The court heard she was in her late 20s when she struck up a relationship with the “rather pathetic, troubled and vulnerable” Downes in early 2013. Up until their arrests in May that year, the Englishman thought the woman he was helping to build bombs looked like blonde Swedish model Sanne Andersson. In reality it was dark-haired Connor, who lived with her mum and brother in a North Belfast terrace. Police found evidence Downes bought material for the pipe bombs and tested the powder that would detonate them. Detectives discovered a number of packages the 31-year-old had sent through Royal Mail to Connor’s house. But before her attack, she videoed footage of what she planned to do and sent it to Downes. In it she said: “I’m literally f***ing it at them and running which gives me then a straight road for running. “When I hear the sirens coming I just walk out, stick the two things down, light them and run.” The trial heard she also tricked
I’m f***ing it at them & running which gives me straight road CHRISTINE CONNOR ON VIDEO OF BOMB PLANS
American Zachary Gevelinger to get involved in her crimes. Described as a vulnerable person, he was a graduate of Wisconsin University and became a maintenance worker there. Hundreds of dollars in cheques from the then 24-year-old were found at Connor’s home in 2013. Gevelinger was arrested on suspicion of supporting terrorism when he visited O’connor at Hydebank Prison on July 6, 2013. Never charged, he was found dead in a hotel room in Wisconsin in May this year. Neither man had previous connections to Northern Ireland or terrorism. Connor admitted possessing explosives and causing explosions with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property on May 16 and 28, as well as preparation of terrorist acts between February 1, 2013, and May 30, 2013. She pleaded guilty to five charges in May. The prosecutor said she was “effectively caught red-handed” due to the wealth of evidence. She had placed a hoax 999 call in which she appeared to be in a highlydistressed state, crying and claiming her boyfriend had “punched her in the face”. When the PSNI responded, they narrowly escaped with their lives when she threw two pipe bombs at them before walking home. An officer who survived revealed they “feel lucky to be alive”. Recalling the attack, he said: “I became suspicious when there was no response at the door. “That was when I heard a noise behind me which was the device landing at my heel. “My adrenalin kicked in and I started running away but tripped and fell just as the first device exploded. “I saw someone coming towards me and a second device hitting the ground near me. “I got up and ran into an alleyway just as this device exploded. I remember the noise was deafening and there was a lot of smoke. “I will never forget that night but it has made me more determined to do my job as a police officer and protect the public.” Welcoming the sentence, Det Supt Richard Campbell from the PSNI’S Serious Crime Branch added: “Northern Ireland is a safer place with Christine Connor behind bars. “The outcome is the result of excellent joint working between the PSNI and West Mercia Police alongside the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit. “Working together, we have disrupted the activity of a dangerous individual and put her behind bars.”