Neil Lennon trial: Parcel ‘contained 248 nails but no explosives’

CELTIC FC manager Neil Lennon was sent a suspect package containing almost 250 nails, a court heard. But the device, sent to Celtic Park, contained no explosives and was a “totally non-viable device”, a trial at the High Court in Glasgow was told yesterday.

Two men are on trial accused of conspiring to assault and murder Mr Lennon as well as the late Paul McBride QC, former MSP Trish Godman and various people inside the Glasgow premises of Irish Republican organisation Cairde Na Heireann by sending what they believed were improvised explosives devices to them through the post.

Trevor Muirhead, 43, and Neil McKenzie, 42, are also accused of sending Mr Lennon a package with the intention of making him think it was likely to explode or ignite.

They face an alternative charge of “unlawfully and maliciously” conspiring to cause an explosion likely to endanger life. They deny all the charges against them.

The package sent to Celtic Park was the first of five suspect parcels to be intercepted on their way to Mr Lennon and the high-profile supporters of the club.

Explosives expert Kevin Sanders, who analysed the parcel on behalf of Strathclyde Police, said there were 248 nails inside it. He said the nails found in the parcel were “similar” in size and dimension to those inside a package addressed to the late Paul McBride QC in Edinburgh.

Advocate Depute Tim Niven-Smith asked him if there were “substantially more” nails in the Celtic Park package than the others intercepted.

He replied: “Yes. 248.”

He went on: “It contained no explosives at all. In my view, it was a totally non-viable device.”

Mr Niven-Smith asked him if all the devices “irrespective of their components” were “non-viable in terms of improvised explosive devices”.

He replied: “Yes.”

The trial also heard from Detective Constable David Calder, who obtained a witness statement from Muirhead’s son’s partner Ayla McCartney in May last year.

Ms McCartney previously told the jury police had falsified parts of her statement, saying they “told me” about conversations and she had “agreed with them” in order to get away.

According to the statement, taken at Saltcoats police station on 12 May 2011, she told police both Muirhead and McKenzie had been in her house the night before the package was discovered. Muirhead had asked what she was planning to do the next day, and she told him she was going to pay her house insurance and go to Tesco.

The statement read: “Trevor said not to go to the left and if we heard a bang in the night, don’t look.”

DC Calder told the court: “That was just what the witness had told us.

“During that morning she was very upset. She was crying. We thought she did have some knowledge. Her being upset was suspicious in itself.

“What she is telling you is lies. We never told that girl to say anything. These were the words she told us.”

The trial, before Lord Turnbull, continues.