Bomb hoaxer must have therapy

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A bomb hoaxer who rang in three fake threats to the University of Kent told staff they had 20 minutes before the explosives would go off.

University cleaner Vanessa Relton also planted two “realistic” devices in the library of the Canterbury campus, which included liquids and wires.

But when she was caught the 41-year-old told police: “I guess that’s the end of my job.”

A judge heard that buildings were evacuated following the hoax calls and one wheelchairbound student had to be carried down stairs by her husband.

Now Relton, who has a conviction for making bomb threats 24 years ago, has once again been diagnosed with a mental illness and sent to a psychiatric hospital on a court order.

Kieran Brand, prosecuting, told Canterbury Crown Court that staff discovered two devices, one in a bag and the other a plastic bottle, both with protruding wires.

“The following day there were two phone calls stating there was bomb in the library and they would go off in 20 minutes” he said.

“Fortunately the controller who took the calls recognised her voice and she was arrested in December.

“She told officers ‘It was me. I don’t know why I did it...i guess that’s the end of my job’.”

Mr Brand said the fake calls caused stress to students and staff and disruption to the university.

Now a judge has heard from two psychiatrists that Relton, who admitted five offences, is suffering from borderline personality disorder.

The cleaner, of Cromwell Road, Whitstable, has previous convictions for similar offences 24 years ago and for arson in 2001.

She pleaded guilty to three offences of communicating false information with intent to make people believe a bomb had been planted in the university library on September 23 and on December 1 and 2 last year.

Relton admitted placing a plastic bag with wires in the university’s Templeman Library, intending people to believe it was a bomb on September 23 and a bottle with fluid and wires on December 1.

In making the order under Sec- tion 37 of the Mental Health Act, which will ensure her illness is treated in a hospital, Judge Adele Williams told Relton: “In the world in which we live of terrorism and international crime, your crimes are incredibly serious because they are bound to be taken very seriously indeed.

“You need to reflect on the fact that because you were suffering stress and distress in your life, it is completely unacceptable to try to alleviate that by causing stress to other people.

“If you commit another offence like this again you may not receive such a therapeutic order in the future.”

Police at the university

Cleaner Vanessa Relton