Man planted firework bomb to frame love rival as terrorist

A MAN tried to frame his former girlfriend’s new partner as a terrorist by planting a home-made bomb in his car, a court heard.

Riyaz Khan, 27, sparked a full-scale terrorism alert when he left the explosive device, which he fashioned from fireworks, in the Peugeot of his former girlfriend’s partner.

The surrounding area in suburban Leicester was cordoned off and 40 homes evacuated while the army’s bomb disposal squad moved in.

Khan also planted a bombing-making manual and a USB stick containing child pornography to try to convince the authorities that his victim was also a paedophile.

Stuart Lody, prosecuting, told Leicester Crown Court that Khan made an anonymous call to the police claiming a man had tried to sell explosives to him. He gave police the description of his ex-girlfriend’s partner.

His plan, part of a three-month “campaign of stalking”, failed when the victim discovered the device and alerted police, telling them he suspected it was Khan.

Police arrested Khan when they found him lurking near his ex-girlfriend’s workplace.

He was jailed for three years and nine months after admitting stalking, criminally damaging a car and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Judge Nicholas Dean told him: “You embarked, after the breakdown or ending of your relationship, on what amounted to a campaign of stalking.

“To some extent it was aimed at her, but … became aimed at and targeted towards her partner, who was due to marry her.

“You were trying to frame him as, in effect, a terrorist.”