Post bombs ‘made by same people’

SUSPICIOUS packages sent to Celtic FC manager Neil Lennon and former MSP Trish Godman could have been put together by the same person or group, an explosives expert told a court yesterday.

Kevin Sanders, a forensic explosives officer, was giving evidence in the trial of Trevor Muirhead and Neil McKenzie at the High Court in Glasgow today.

Muirhead, 43, from Kilwinning, and McKenzie, 42, from Saltcoats, both Ayrshire, are accused of plotting to kill Lennon, Ms Godman, late QC Paul McBride and members of Irish Republican group Cairde Na Heireann in Glasgow by sending explosive devices to them.

The charges, denied by the two men, are alleged to involve incidents between March 1 and May 12 last year.

Mr Sanders, who works for a forensic explosives laboratory in Sevenoaks, Kent, said two devices sent to Ms Godman’s office in Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, and to Lennon at Celtic’s Lennoxtown training ground in East Dunbartonshire had certain similarities.

He told the court: “It is possible that they were constructed by the same person or group of persons working to a common plan. They were made to look like improvised explosive devices.”

The trial, before Lord Turnbull, was adjourned until today.