Manchester Airport passenger who tried to smuggle pipe bomb onto Ryanair flight – and then let go to fly again in astonishing security blunder – is jailed for 18 years
Nadeem Muhammad, 43, who was born in Pakistan but had an Italian passport, sobbed in the dock when the jury found him guilty by a majority verdict of 10 to two
A MANIAC who arrived at a British airport for a flight with a pipe bomb in his hand luggage has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Manchester Airport security staff found the device inside Nadeem Muhammad's bag on January 30.
It contained gunpowder and batteries inside a marker pen tube.
The 43-year-old denied wrongdoing, saying the bomb must have been planted by someone else.
But prosecutors said he planned to detonate the pipe bomb during a Ryanair flight to Italy.
Muhammad was convicted this month of possessing explosives.
But sentencing him today, judge Patrick Field criticized airport staff for making a "wholly erroneous and potentially dangerous" conclusion that the bomb wasn't viable.
Muhammad wasn't arrested when he was initially stopped, and was allowed to fly to Italy several days later.
The court heard Muhammad, of Tinline Street, Bury, had been planning to board a Ryanair flight to Italy on January 30 when security officers uncovered the device, made of masking tape, batteries, the tube of a marker pen, pins and wires, in the zip lining of his small green suitcase.
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Muhammad claimed that he had never seen the device before and it had nothing to do with him.
Airport security initially believed the bomb was not viable and, after being questioned by counter terrorism officers, Muhammad, who was born in Pakistan but had an Italian passport, was released.
Judge Field said he had been "alarmed by some of the evidence in the case".
He said: "In these dangerous times it seems to me there's no room for complacency.
"I express hope that security at the airport and policing at the airport will be subject to a review at the highest level."
The court had heard that airport staff swabbed the device, which was later found to contain nitroglycerin, but found no trace of explosive and terminal three security manager Deborah Jeffrey initially put it into her pocket.
Judge Field said: "It occurred to me and I'm sure to others listening to that evidence that by acting that way she put herself, her fellow employees and members of the public at risk."
He said the situation was "compounded" by police who accepted the assurance that the device was not viable and missed an "early opportunity" to arrest Muhammad - who was allowed to board a flight to Italy five days later and another back to the UK before he was arrested on February 12
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