Pipe bomb ‘delivery boy’ who blew off his fingers has daily reminder of stupidity, court told

Although Ryan Treanor was warned that he faces a “reasonably substantial prison sentence,” Craigavon Magistrates Court also heard that the 26-year-old is lucky to be alive.

Defence KC Patrick Lyttle said it was accepted that “if the device had operated as intended, he would not be before this court”.

Describing Treanor as a “delivery boy,” the senior barrister said the severe injuries he sustained in the botched bomb attack more than two years ago “will be a daily reminder to him of his stupidity”.

Treanor, from Victoria Gardens in Lurgan, had entered a guilty plea to one count of possessing an explosive substance on December 1, 2020 with intent to endanger life.

Prosecuting counsel Robin Steer told the court on Friday how several residents in the Enniskeen “heard a loud bang” at around 9.30 that evening.

The intended victim, a career criminal who has been subjected to other bomb attacks and an attempted shooting assassination, wasn’t even home at the time but his mum and her grandchildren were.

When she looked out through the curtains she saw “a man in dark clothing, his hands badly injured, he was focused on his hands and he was shouting for an ambulance”.

When the police arrived at the scene, Treanor told them “he had lifted something plastic and it exploded” but they also noticed the “partial remains of a latex glove stuck to his wrist”.

Mr Steer said crime scene investigators found other parts of “blood-stained gloves” and a blood-stained lighter which had been blown several feet away and that Treanor’s DNA was found on the items.

An Ammunition Technical Officer was also called to the scene after the CSIs found the partially exploded pipe bomb and between the wounds to Treanor’s hands, coupled with the wound to his chest, he believed that it was “consistent with someone holding the bomb when it exploded”.

Arrested and interviewed after he was taken to hospital, Treanor refused to answer police questions.

Mr Steer submitted there were multiple aggravating features including the fact that a specific individual had been targeted, that an actual functioning device had been used and that it exploded.

Lodging a plea in mitigation, Mr Lyttle said despite having an insignificant criminal record beforehand, Treanor “went from zero to 100 miles an hour in terms of offences” but that it was clear he had sustained “life-altering, if not life-threatening, injuries”.

“The people who organised this did so knowing that this pipe bomb was extremely unstable and that the person who would deliver it would be at risk,” said the lawyer, describing Treanor as a “delivery boy”.

Adjourning the case until Tuesday, Judge Patrick Lynch KC said Treanor “knows the realities of life – whatever the outcome he is facing a reasonably substantial prison sentence” so he was remanding him into custody in the meantime.