THIS BOMB IS FOR THE QUEEN
Lone wolf given eight years for threat to attack banquet and bid to blow up bus
A TERRORIST who warned police he would blow up the Queen has been jailed for eight years.
Donal Billings, 66, also planted a bomb on a bus hours before her state visit to Ireland.
He told police he had trained mortars on a banquet and said: “This is for the Queen.”
TWISTED Donal Billings sent a chilling warning to police boasting that he would attack the Queen as she settled down to a banquet during a state visit to Ireland.
The lone wolf terrorist told officers hours before the plush feast that he had trained mortars on Dublin Castle where the royal party were being entertained.
And on the eve of the Queen’s visit, the warped 66-year-old planted a bomb on a bus bound for the city that would have caused horrific bloodshed had it not been intercepted by officers.
Billings, who has no known links with dissident groups, was last night starting an eight and a half year sentence for the failed explosives plot and mortar threats.
His terrifying haul of weapons and ammunition, which included a Czech-made pistol, pipe and timer, was put on display by police to show how serious he was about the attacks.
A court heard how Billings called officers with his warning in May 2011 as the Queen prepared for the banquet with Prince Philip, Irish president Mary McAleese and her husband Martin.
He said: “I’m a member of the Republican Brotherhood, Squad A. Two mortars are set for Dublin Castle at 8pm. This is for the Queen of blood and war of Iraq.”
A few days earlier – just hours before the 90-year-old monarch arrived for her visit, Billings sneaked his pipe bomb on to a bus as it stopped at a train station on its way to Dublin.
There were 31 people on board and police said the device, hidden in the luggage compartment, had the potential for “great destruction”. It comprised a firework timer switch, a copper pipe stuffed with gun powder and a two-litre plastic bottle of petrol.
The bus was stopped by police five miles from the city after Billings phoned them with a warning. Dublin’s criminal court of justice heard if it had gone off it would have resulted in the “complete destruction of the vehicle in question”. Mr Justice Tony Hunt branded the move an “outrageous, highly irresponsible and dangerous act”.
He added: “It recklessly exposed passengers, staff and members of the emergency services to very significant risk of serious injury or death.” Billings, who insisted on being questioned by detectives in Irish, has previous convictions for possessing explosives in Northern Ireland in 1973. He was sentenced to eight years at the time.
After his mortar warning, no devices were found at Dublin Castle. Billings, of Drumlish, Co Longford, was convicted of the bomb plot and making a hoax call over the Queen threat following a two-week
trial. He was also found guilty of making fake threats related to devices supposedly placed at a Sinn Fein office in Dublin, a bus station in the city and Cork airport.
Billings was given one, two, three and four years for each of those charges – to run concurrently.
The trial was heard in both English and Irish, after he invoked his right to be tried in Gaelic.
He had denied any involvement in the explosives or the phone calls.
But referring to evidence Billings gave during the trial, Mr Justice Hunt said the “lies told by the accused were rather obvious and unsophisticated”. After Billings was jailed, a Garda spokesman said: “This investigation highlights the continuing significant challenges faced by gardai in the context of monitoring and bringing to justice persons who have the capability and intent of disrupting particular events and being reckless as to the potential lethal consequences of the use of improvised explosive devices.
“The gardai would like to thank all the members of the public who assisted and co-operated with the security measures that were in place at the time of the Queen’s visit.” Detective Inspector Finlay added: “This investigation highlights the challenges faced, and particularly in relation to this one, when you had an individual who was capable and intent on causing disruption to a state visit.”
Billings was caught after police traced phone records and SIM cards.
He was placed under surveillance and arrested that day at a supermarket in the county town of Longford.
He told police he had only just found the SIM card in the car park.
A Garda spokesman said the investigation was centred in Longford and involved local officers as well as specialist national units. The pistol police put on display was found in the back of a computer seized at his home.
Also on show from his arsenal were a number of bullets, a firework timer switch for the bomb and a two-litre plastic bottle filled with petrol.
The copper pipe he had intended to cause mayhem with was discovered stuffed full of gunpowder.
The mobile phones Billings used to make the hoax bomb threats were also put on display.
THE lone-wolf terrorist jailed over a failed bomb plot during the Queen’s state visit to Ireland is a stark reminder that deadly threats come from many directions.
First, a Far Right, anti-EU racist is jailed for murdering pro-European Labour MP Jo Cox, now this would-be killer who claimed affiliation with a republic organisation is behind bars.
Donal Billings will have up to eight-and-a-half years in captivity to reflect on his warped idea of how to achieve his political goals.
Most of the police and security service’s focus recently has been on Islamists and we are only too aware that religious fanatics pose a danger.
The Tube and bus bombings in London on July 7, 2005, the horrific murder of soldier Lee Rigby, and the mass killings in France and Belgium are grim proof of that.
But other extremists are ignored at our peril, as these hate-filled individuals and perverted groups are also prepared to use violence to pursue their political or religious objectives.
Terrorism of any hue is never legitimate.