Court upholds sentencing of Queen's visit bomber

The Court of Appeal has upheld an eight-and-a-half year sentence imposed on a 70-year-old man convicted of placing an explosive device on a bus during Queen Elizabeth's 2011 state visit. Dónal Billings, with an address in Drumlish, County Longford, had appealed against the severity of his sentence following his 2016 conviction by the Special Criminal Court. The three-judge panel, led by Court President Justice George Birmingham, found the original sentence to be lenient rather than excessive, determining there was no merit in the appeal. The court noted it would have had power to increase the sentence but chose not to do so. Billings was also convicted of making hoax bomb threats at multiple locations during the state visit. He attended the appeal remotely from Portlaoise Prison.