A 37-year-old Londonderry man has been sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted of possessing explosives with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property, following three separate pipe bomb attacks on residential addresses in the city.

Noel Logan was convicted after a judge-alone trial before Fowler J at Laganside Crown Court. He was found to have handled pipe bombs connected to incidents at 5 Montgomery Close in November 2017, 19 Montgomery Close in March 2019, and 5 Bonds Place in September 2019. Logan was arrested in December 2020 under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and exercised his right to silence throughout police interviews on 9 and 10 December of that year.

The case against Logan rested on a combination of circumstantial and forensic DNA evidence. In the first incident, two pipe bombs were recovered from the rear garden of a property at 5 Montgomery Close. DNA from one device produced a mixed profile; statistical analysis indicated the findings were at least 1.7 million times more likely if Logan was a contributor than if the profile originated from two unrelated individuals. DNA recovered from the second device, at 19 Montgomery Close, produced results assessed as at least one billion times more likely if Logan was a contributor. DNA from multiple sections of the third device, at Bonds Place, produced equivalent statistical weight across three separate samples.

The court found Logan had handled the devices during or after their construction, with some carrying nails attached as additional shrapnel. At trial, Logan argued his DNA could have been transferred innocently via adhesive tape he used to attach loyalist flags to lamp posts in the local area. The court rejected this explanation. Logan continued to maintain his innocence in a pre-sentence report dated 31 July 2025.

Fowler J assessed Logan's culpability as high, noting that anyone handling such devices in the condition they were found could have been under no illusion as to their lethality. The harm was assessed as medium, given that occupants of the targeted homes were placed in considerable danger and fear, and that three separate households were attacked over a period of nearly two years. The court identified an appropriate sentencing range of eight to ten years for offending of this type.

The judge declined to make a finding of dangerousness under the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008, accepting the conclusions of consultant psychologist Dr Philip Pollock, whose report assessed Logan as presenting a low risk of violent conduct towards others. This finding contrasted with the pre-sentence report, which had assessed Logan as posing a high risk of serious harm, based primarily on his continued denial, limited protective factors, and stated intention to return to the area associated with his offending. The court also found insufficient evidence to establish a terrorist connection in respect of any of the three counts, meaning Logan fell to be sentenced to a determinate custodial sentence rather than one attracting specialist counter-terrorism provisions.

On the question of delay, the court accepted that some of the time elapsed since charge was attributable to the relevant authorities, including a period of 15 months between charge and committal. The offences were committed between November 2017 and September 2019, Logan was charged in December 2020, and sentencing took place in March 2026. Drawing on the Court of Appeal's guidance in R v McGinley [2025] NICA 11, Fowler J applied a six-month reduction to reflect delay amounting to a breach of Logan's Article 6 right to trial within a reasonable time.

The final sentence was eight years determinate custody, split equally between a custodial period and a supervised licence period, on each count to run concurrently. The appropriate offender levy was also applied. David Russell KC appeared for the Crown, instructed by the Public Prosecution Service. Martin O'Rourke KC and Andrew Moriarty appeared for Logan, instructed by Madden and Finucane Solicitors.