Deaf man made 107 hoax bomb threats

He targeted Parliament, schools and Super Bowl

A DEAF man has admitted making 107 hoax bomb threats against targets including Parliament, the Super Bowl and dozens of schools.

Andreas Dowling, 24, pleaded guilty to 30 counts of communicating false information with intent between 2014 and 2016.

Bristol Crown Court heard one charge related to threats against Jewish schools and will be sentenced as ‘racially aggravated’.

Police said they still do not know why Dowling, of Torpoint, Cornwall, committed the crimes against UK, US and Canadian targets. Most threats were made by phone, with the hoaxer using technology to disguise his voice. Others were made online.

Dowling also pleaded guilty to threatening to ‘ruin the life’ of a 17-year-old girl in the US unless she sent him nude photos of herself. He was assisted in entering his pleas from the dock by a ‘lip speaker’.

Simon Laws, QC, prosecuting, told a previous hearing at the Old Bailey the hoaxes caused ‘disruption and panic’.

Dowling, who used the name Janka, threatened the Super Bowl – the American football showpiece event – in 2015 and the Houses of Parliament in 2016. He also targeted around 70 schools before he was arrested in June this year.

Counter- terrorism teams worked with the National Crime Agency and the FBI in America. They concluded the threats were not acts of terrorism. A senior police officer said the offences against schools could have caused psychological damage to children.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon, senior national co- ordinator for UK counter-terrorism policing, said: ‘Some of these locations evacuated... we’re talking about primary schools, secondary schools and colleges. Young children, teachers and the staff that work at those locations – if you can imagine the effect it’s had on those individuals.

‘It’s quite a significant psychological effect as well as economic damage and disruption to those locations.’ Rachael Scott, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said a key piece of evidence was found on a computer at Dowling’s home.

She said: ‘When police executed a warrant at his address in October 2017 they recovered a hard drive from his bedroom which basically confirmed that he was “Janka’” – this person responsible on the internet for committing these offences.

‘It confirmed everything the police had been trying to ascertain as to who this mystery person was.

‘Finding all this information on his home computer actually was...the crucial bit of evidence in order to properly prosecute him so the CPS could make the decision to put him before the court for these offences.’

Dowling was remanded in custody for reports and will be sentenced at Exeter Crown Court next month.

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