Man guilty of having explosive device, making bomb threats during Queen's visit

A 66-year-old man from Drumlish, County Longford has been convicted at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin of possessing an explosive substance and making bomb threats during a state visit in May 2011. Donal Billings was found guilty of unlawfully possessing an explosive device at Longford railway station car park on May 16th, 2011, and of four counts under the Criminal Law Act of 1976 relating to false bomb reports. He was convicted of making false reports claiming bombs had been placed at Busáras and Sinn Féin headquarters in Dublin, at Dublin Castle, and at Cork airport. The court heard that an improvised explosive device was discovered on a passenger bus following one of the telephoned threats. Evidence established that phone calls making the threats were made using a SIM card purchased by Billings in Longford and traced to his mobile phone's unique identifier. The three judges rejected his claims of coincidence and found him an unreliable witness. Billings was remanded in custody pending sentencing on November 30th.