A man who made a hoax bomb threat after leaving a bag on a bench close to Carlisle’s war memorial on Remembrance Day has been spared immediate prison.
People, including war veterans and schoolchildren, had gathered at the city centre’s Greenmarket, close to the Crown & Mitre Hotel, on November 11 2020 to remember the fallen.
At around 11.05am, just after two minutes of silence, army cadet administrative assistant Paul Newton-Kerr, who was present to lay a wreath, was chatting with a friend.
Carlisle Crown Court heard today how the pair saw Benjamin Michael Heaney, 42, lay two bags on a bench — one black and one green. Heaney sipped from a flask he took from his green bag, which he put on his back, and walked away briskly through the pedestrianised city centre.
Mr Newton-Kerr ran to tell Heaney about the abandoned bag and was left in shock as Heaney twice replied: “It’s a bomb.”
Mr Newton-Kerr asked about the bag again, to which Heaney replied: “It’s a camera. Give it to the kids.”
Mr Newton-Kerr backed off, returned to his friend and they agreed police should be called. Officers attended and were present for some time at the scene, which was cordoned off.
A specialist officer was contacted but when Heaney returned to the area he confirmed the bag contacted only a camera and no further police or comb disposal action was required.
Heaney, of Burgh-by-Sands, near Carlisle, admitted a charge of communicating false information with intent.
Judge Simon Medland QC heard there was a significant psychiatric background, and that Heaney had been drinking before the hoax.
Stating that his priority was to protect the public from future harm, the judge suspended an 18-month jail term for two years.
He also banned Heaney from seeking any employment abroad for two years and ordered that he be fitted with an alcohol abstinence tag which flags up any intake, for the next 90 days.
Judge Medland told him: “You said at a very sensitive time in the annual calendar that it was a bomb, and that had to be taken seriously and caused very considerable disruption to people who were only trying to undertake a most serious and important matter of public remembrance.”
