Stephen Kay was originally arrested in September 2010 after a number of drunken phone calls made to police by a man called Nathan Wilkinson claiming that Mr Kay was questioned along with a number of other people about the offence back in 1999 and that it was him that did it. Wilkinson was also arrested but later admitted he made the calls to get at Mr Kay for sleeping with his ex-girlfriend. The original arrest led to the evacuation of around 80 people and major disruption to the Lune Street area of Lancaster as suspicious devices were found. The devices turned out to be harmless film and military memorabilia that Mr Kay had in his display cabinet. Both  Mr Kay and Mr Wilkinson was then released without charge.

 

Mr Kay then contacted a journalist asking for the facts to be made correct after it was published that the police had found an “arsenal of weapons”

 

Mr Kay was arrested again in August 2012 and charged after Mr Wilkinson made a fresh statement and became a prosecution witness. Robert Mayor, a neighbour of Mr Kay's made a statement  saying Mr Kay had admitted the offence to him. At the first trial Mr Kay was found not guilty of sending an explosive device and the trial collapsed when Mr Mayor (the partner of a serving police officer) was proved to be an unreliable witness. A second trial was then called. Mr Kay was found guilty with circumstantial evidence alone by a majority verdict at a retrial after the defence failed to obtain court transcripts from the first trial. Despite this failure in the court process. Mr Kay was found guilty and sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court.

 

Speaking after the sentencing Sergeant Clive O'Beirne said: “We are really happy with the sentence given today and hope it shows that, Lancashire Constabulary will never forget about a case and all major crime will continue to be reviewed and re-investigated until a conviction is achieved.

 

I would like to apologize and thank everybody for their patience and co-operation during this investigation, particularly during the disruption caused by the first raid on Lune street.

 

A number of witness statements that have never been shown to the jury have now come to light and the  event can now be time lined. This has raised serious questions about the strength of the conviction and who actually did put the device there.

 

Speaking about the conviction Mr Kay says "This case has never been about public safety, innocence or guilt or who has done what, the raid in 2010 disrupted a lot of people and cost a lot of money, this conviction is about justifying that, to do so they lied about danger to the public. Sergeant Clive O'Beirne and other police officers behaved like gamblers chasing their losses and they was willing to do anything to get a conviction. There is always a danger of allowing convictions on circumstantial evidence alone. The evidence is often cherry picked. It is important that when giving a statement to the police that people check that what is in the statement is what they have actually said before they sign it”.

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It says something when Joanna White, Senior Crown Prosecutor, says “ there was no direct evidence of Kay committing the offences” so she  commissioned a report from a clinical psychologist. This is a clinical psychologist that has never met me and has never even spoke to me, A  clinical psychologist doing a report based solely on what a policeman has told them. It is clear that when psychology is used in crime, it means there is no evidence so psychology is a way of manufacturing some.