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| Soldier Ryan McGee jailed for making nail bomb | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A soldier said to be obsessed with far-right politics has been jailed for two years for making a nail bomb at his family's home in Greater Manchester. | A soldier said to be obsessed with far-right politics has been jailed for two years for making a nail bomb at his family's home in Greater Manchester. |
| Ryan McGee, 20, was serving with 5th Battalion The Rifles when held in December 2013 at a UK base in Germany. | |
| He earlier admitted making the device and having information - a book with bomb-making tips - likely to be useful to a terrorist, at the Old Bailey. | |
| Police found the bomb after raiding the Eccles property on another matter. | |
| It contained 181 metal screws and glass. | It contained 181 metal screws and glass. |
| The book he pleaded guilty to possessing was called the Anarchist Cookbook and also had instructions for the home-manufacturing of drugs. | |
| The court heard when an officer found the device in a bedroom of the family's three-bedroom house, bomb disposal experts were called in and counter-terrorism police launched an investigation. | |
| Prosecutor Roger Smart said imitation firearms and ammunition were found along with components for the device, suggesting a "preoccupation that goes far beyond any amateur enthusiast's collection". | |
| But Mr Smart told the court it was accepted that rifleman McGee was not a terrorist or intended to help a terrorist group. | |
| 'Violent age' | |
| He told the court McGee had links to far right groups in Europe on his computer and watched a video of two men being executed under a swastika flag. | |
| McGee also had a "keen interest in the English Defence League" and had attended one of their marches but was not a member of the group, said the lawyer. | |
| When he was interviewed by police, McGee said he was interested in right wing politics because he did not like mass immigration. He said he made the bomb while on leave "out of boredom". | |
| Antony Chinn QC, defending, said the fact that a journal kept by McGee featuring drawings of guns and knives and images of paramilitary soldiers had stickers of cartoon character Scooby Doo and birds on its cover was an indication of his immaturity. | |
| "Although he accepts he made the device he never intended to put it to any violent purpose," he added. | |
| The judge, the Recorder of London Brian Barker said: "The fact of the matter is any explosive device in the wrong hands could cause untold misery to anyone on the receiving end. | |
| "Sadly, we live in a violent age. Let's be quite clear that any experimentation by anybody with these kinds of weapons must lead to severe sentences." |