Iain Merrick guilty of sending post office letter bomb

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-25472579

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A man who sent a homemade bomb to a post office and tried to brand a postman a paedophile has been found guilty of a string of offences.

Iain Merrick had a grudge dating back to 2008 when he complained to his local post office he had not received his mail, Manchester Crown Court heard.

He was convicted of sending a letter bomb as well as 21 charges relating to indecent images of children.

Merrick, 39, from Horwich, Bolton, is due to be sentenced on 19 February.

On 15 April 2011 a postal worker opened a postbox at Winter Hey Lane Post Office in Horwich and found Merrick's homemade bomb.

Although it did not go off, dozens of businesses were evacuated and Army bomb disposal experts were called in.

'Sexual slurs'

Later that year white stickers were found around Horwich branding a postman as a paedophile, and six local primary schools called police to say they had been sent indecent images of children with personal details of two post office employees on the back.

Det Sgt Russ Stubbs, of the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, said: 'Merrick waged a one-man crusade against the post office, a one-sided conflict that seems to have been ignited by the tiniest of sparks.

"A perceived problem with mail going to the wrong house was all it took for Merrick to launch an escalating vendetta which involved sexual slurs and sending a letter bomb to a post office.

"Had this crude device gone off, then the unfortunate postal worker who opened it could have suffered very serious injuries.

"You do not need a vivid imagination to foresee the kind of damage that razor blades and fish hooks could have caused to a human being."