Woman jailed for attempting to kill police officers

Christine Connor, 35, was convicted at Belfast Crown Court last month of attempted murder and causing an explosion likely to endanger life.

Her trial heard she was initially charged alongside Stuart Downes from Shrewsbury.

The 31-year old was subsequently granted bail and was found dead in woodland near his home in June 2016.

The judge said that between February and May 2013 "they researched pipe bombs, with Downes purchasing component parts and ensuring they were dispatched to and received in Northern Ireland where they were deployed by Connor."

During the trial, the prosecution said Connor and Downes met online and established a relationship when Connor was posing as a blonde Swedish model called Sanne Anderson.

When arrested, Connor denied she knew Downes and rejected claims she communicated with him.

She continued these denials during the trial, but in his ruling the judge said there was overwhelming evidence to suggest otherwise.

During sentencing at Belfast Crown Court, Judge Stephen Fowler said Connor remains in his view a "committed dissident republican".

"She is still wedded to violence ... the defendant's role in these attacks demonstrates her high level of commitment to the dissident republican cause and willingness to murder without remorse," he said.

"I find the defendant dangerous.

"I consider the culpability of the defendant high and the harm intended murderous."

The judge said the appropriate sentencing would be in the region of 24 years. However, taking into account mitigating factors including the defendant's poor health, he sentenced her to 20 years with four years' extended licence.

Connor appeared at Belfast Crown Court via videolink from Hydebank Wood prison to hear the sentencing.

Connor, whose address is subject to a reporting restriction, denied the charges linked to two incidents in the north of the city in May 2013.

However, in a lengthy judgment in July, Judge Fowler dismissed her explanations.

During the first incident on May 16, 2013, an early morning 999 call was made by a female who claimed she had seen an object she thought was a bomb in a garden on the Ligoniel Road.

Officers observed a large plume of smoke in the area shortly after the call on CCTV and when police went to the scene they observed two scorch marks on the road.

In the second incident on May 20 of the same year, police officers attended the Crumlin Road after receiving a call from a woman who claimed she had been attacked by her boyfriend.

It was there that two pipe bombs were thrown from an alleyway. The first exploded close to an officer's foot, who ran away but tripped on a kerb, after which the second device was thrown. Nobody was seriously injured.

Following a non-jury trial which commenced at the end of last November and ran until mid-December, Judge Fowler said a "compelling circumstantial and forensic case" had been presented.