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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Scorned Man Sends Bomb Threat and Makes it Appear Estranged Wife Sent It!


A scorned husband who tried to get his estranged wife arrested by emailing MI5 and claiming she had planted a bomb at a junior school was jailed for 16 months today.

Crazed Ghulam Kibria, 33, caused panic after he sent a chilling bomb threat to the security service’s website. He pretended to be his wife when he clicked on the MI5 'contact us' section of the site and wrote: 'There is a bomb planted in Prince Albert Junior and Infant School in Aston. There is nothing you can do - we can strike anytime, anywhere.'

Anti-terror police evacuated all 700 pupils and 110 staff at the school in Birmingham just seven minutes after receiving the email on November 8 last year.

Kibria was jailed for 16 months after he pleaded guilty to communicating a bomb hoax. Sentencing him at Birmingham Crown Court Judge John Maxwell said: 'The motive, we can be quite clear, was not to disrupt the school, to disrupt the neighbourhood, the motive was one of malice against the ex-wife to get her into trouble.

'You lived a perfectly respectable life until your life was turned upside down by an extremely unhappy marriage. You genuinely believe that your wife has committed great evil against you and so is the depth of your belief in that it has pushed you into a mental illness. You decided to get revenge against your ex-wife and you decided to issue a bomb hoax in her name and the motive simply that you were trying to get her arrested. It caused great fear. There was nothing short of panic. It was an offence that was inspired by malice and revenge.'

Kibria sent the email, which included the name and address of his ex-wife, to MI5 at 1.53pm. By 2pm all staff and pupils had been evacuated and police put a 100m exclusion zone around the school after the threat was taken 'considerably seriously' by MI5, the court heard. Children as young as three were carried outside in the freezing temperatures after the evacuation came while pupils changed for a PE lesson.

The court heard a 100-metre police cordon was set up around the school following the threat and two search teams of six officers in each were deployed to the school, along with an explosive detection dog and handler. Anti-terrorism officers swooped on Kibria’s ex-wife’s home who denied sending the threat. Officers arrested Kibria in Lidget Green, Bradford and seized his laptop which proved he had sent the message to MI5.

Kathryn Roughton, prosecuting, told the court, Kibria harboured a 'very profound and deep seated sense of resentment' towards his ex-wife. Regan Beggs, defending, said Kibria had suffered psychiatric difficulties but was not on medication when he sent the email.

Speaking after the hearing, Detective Inspector Neil Corrigan said: 'We take hoax bomb reports very seriously and will always work to bring offenders before the courts. 'Kibria’s actions wasted a significant amount of police time and resources, and could have taken officers away from more urgent matters. It also caused considerable inconvenience to teachers, pupils and parents at the school. We hope the fact that Kibria has been given a custodial sentence will act as a warning to others not to act so irresponsibly.'

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