Two North Ayrshire men have been sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of sending suspect packages to Celtic manager Neil Lennon and two high-profile fans of the club.
As previously reported by the3towns, Neil McKenzie, 42, from Saltcoats, and Trevor Muirhead, 44, of Kilwinning sent devices they believed were capable of exploding and causing injury to Neil Lennon, former Labour MSP Trish Godman and the late Paul McBride QC.
The sentence, handed down at the High Court in Glasgow last Friday (April 27) by Lord Turnbull, was backdated to May 2011, the time both men were arrested. The judge said he had taken into consideration background reports indicating that, prior to committing the offences, McKenzie and Muirhead had a good employment history and family support.
Lord Turnbull said, “It is incomprehensible that two such family men in their forties would engage in such reckless and serious forms of criminal conduct. Even the sending of a parcel bomb as a hoax would always be a serious offence that would in itself be likely to end in a custodial sentence.”
During sentencing, Lord Turnbull said that evidence presented in the trial showed that, despite the two men believing the devices were capable of igniting and exploding, “it [was] perfectly clear they could not in fact do so, the intent could not have been achieved”.
McKenzie and Muirhead were jailed for five years, with the Saltcoats man receiving another 18 months on a separate charge of sending a hoax bomb, but this was ordered to be served concurrently.
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