Man (Celtic Fan) charged over bomb hoax Ibrox stadium incident

[ian1964 10,409]

A man from Northern Ireland rang Ibrox as Celtic were losing to Rangers to report a bomb at the stadium, a court has heard.

 

James Joseph Doherty, 34, from Carnhill in Londonderry, is charged with making the bomb hoax during an Old Firm derby on May 12 2019.

 

Rangers won the Scottish Premiership encounter 2-0 with goals from James Tavernier and Scott Arfield.

 

The case was mentioned during a sitting of Derry Magistrates' Court on Monday.

A defence lawyer outlined the allegation.

 

"It's a hoax bomb case where the allegation is that Celtic were getting beat, he rang Ibrox and said there was a bomb at the stadium," he said."I don't think it affected the result, if my memory is right."

 

The solicitor said his client had made "admissions at interview" and suggested a guilty plea was likely.

But he added: "For some reason I'm not absolutely in a position to confirm that."

 

The lawyer told district judge Barney McElholm if the charge was contested it would be a relatively short hearing, based on the legal papers in the case. "What I can say is, if it's not a plea, it'll be a very short contest on the papers," he said.

The solicitor asked for the case to be adjourned for two weeks.

Judge McElholm listed the matter to be heard again on November 19.

 

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18771209.man-accused-ibrox-bomb/

 

I can't remember hearing about this at the time???

[Bluedell 5,329]

7 minutes ago, ian1964 said:

I can't remember hearing about this at the time???

Me neither, but I guess there was the usual Scottish press cover-up.

[CammyF 6,775]

Juan Guy, £30 software, someone pretending to be a Celtic fan, separate entity.... take your pick 

 

[26th of foot 5,827]

Candid reporting, James Joseph Doherty has been stripped of the usual title, ‘football fan’, he is described as, “a man”. Maybe, in a decade, Editors and Subbies will allow reporters to utilise titles such as, ‘Sellik fan’?
 

Of course, James Joseph Doherty will be due a year’s counselling, I note the report states he is from Londonderry; traumatising!

 

It will be interesting, if you remember, a Caledonian Uni’ undergraduate turned up at a Halowean party dressed as Postman Pat, carrying a parcel bomb addressed to Neil Lennon? He was charged, tried, convicted, and sentenced to a six month custodial sentence, suspended. Such a precedent might be awkward for James a Joseph Doherty? I am sure it won’ t be.

[Franc Ergs 1,349]

A slap on the wrists , It's just good old Oirish craic ? .

[JohnMc 2,463]

"I don't think it affected the result, if my memory is right." ??

 

Many, many moons ago I was gainfully employed in what was then the Clydeway Industrial Centre, these days, post gentrification it's The Skypark. It had a very different look and feel in the 80s, it was owned by Glasgow Council then and housed mainly light industrial companies by day and ladies of the night by, err, night. On the ground floor was a business who I think were called Heatwise. At a time of mass unemployment they employed a lot of guys who were long term unemployed. The idea was they got used to working again and perhaps learned some new skills. It was quite worthy and a decent idea on paper. In reality it had a load of guys who had to go there for a few months are they'd lose their broo, so motivation and application wasn't always what it might have been. 

 

Anderson Primary School was alongside and it had a red blaes pitch, on those rare warm Glasgow days the lads from Heatwise would head down to the pitch for a kickabout of a lunchtime. Around this time the Provisional IRA were fairly active with bombings, and one sunny lunchtime the building's alarm went off and the building was cleared as fire engines and Strathclyde's finest descended on the building and a full search was carried out. We were outside for well over an hour before it was deemed a false alarm. A few days later the same thing happened, again, strangely it was a warm day and again squad cars and firemen rushed to the scene. This happened another 3 times over the next month and even the most work shy of us was starting to get a bit hacked off. 

 

On the final occasion this happened a large polis and senior fireman asked the crowd gathering outside in the muster area who among us worked for Heatwise. A couple raised their hands and further fingers were pointed towards the football pitch where the main body of the workforce were furiously engaged in what looked like a full scale 11 a side match. The copper marched onto the pitch, picked up the ball and told them they had to go into the building to help with the search for the 'bomb'. He marched them all into the building, came back out and told us we could all go back in too now. Strangely, there were no more bomb scares after that. I wonder if James Joseph Doherty's dad worked at Heatwise...