Jail for husband who made hoax bomb call
01.06.06
A spurned husband who made a hoax call claiming there was a bomb on board his estranged wife's holiday plane was jailed for 12 months yesterday. Dozens of flights at Southampton Airport were thrown into chaos after Patrick Keohane dialled 999 half an hour before the jet was due to take off, the court heard.
56-year-old Keohane - reported to be furious after wife Sarah started a new relationship - told police that a bomb had been planted on her Flybe flight to Malaga. She was on the plane with her two daughters, aged 13 and ten.
Armed police are said to have raced to the airport and evacuated 83 passengers so the jet could be searched. It took off four hours late - but four passengers were too upset to take the flight. Police traced the call to Keohane and raided his home in Hedge End, near Southampton - where they found 85 rounds of ammunition.
Keohane, a financial advisor, pleaded guilty to making the call last August and possessing the ammunition without a certificate. His lawyer James Leonard said anger had led to a 'moment of madness'.
Leonard added: 'Looking back he can barely believe he could pick up that phone, let alone send the security forces on a wild goose chase.' But Judge Jeremy Burford at Southampton Crown Court jailed Keohane for a year and told him the offence was 'so serious a community penalty could not be justified'.
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