World News | Man Sentenced for Sending Bomb Hoax to UK Vaccine Plant
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. A man who sent a bomb hoax to a UK coronavirus vaccine factory and similar parcels elsewhere, including a laboratory in Wuhan, China, was sentenced to more than two years in prison on Wednesday.
London, Nov 24 (AP) A man who sent a bomb hoax to a UK coronavirus vaccine factory and similar parcels elsewhere, including a laboratory in Wuhan, China, was sentenced to more than two years in prison on Wednesday.
About 120 people had to be evacuated from a plant in Wales producing the Oxford-AstraZeneca shots in January after Anthony Collins, 54, sent a suspicious package there. The British army's bomb disposal unit was called and production of the vaccine was halted, but the batch was salvaged later after bomb experts found no explosives in the parcel.
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Detective Inspector Adam Marshall said Collins “was fully aware of the impact his actions would have and chose to impede the vaccine rollout when the program was still in its infancy”. Authorities also intercepted similar packages Collins sent to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office, a laboratory in Wuhan and a US Air Force base in England.
His defence lawyer Janice Brennan said Collins had a diagnosed personality disorder and had long been obsessed with sending letters and parcels. He had developed an “obsessive interest” in COVID-19 and vaccines, she added.
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But Judge David Griffith-Jones said Collins deliberately sent a bomb hoax “knowing perfectly well that it would cause fear and mayhem”. When arrested, Collins told police that the package — which contained a calculator, a garden glove, four batteries among other items — was meant to help scientists and the government cope with COVID-19.
The judge said Collins' insistence that he intended to help was “childish and quite perverse”. He sentenced Collins to 27 months in prison, with time that he had already spent in custody to be deducted. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)