Celtic parcel bomber may strike again, police warn
Rivals Rangers condemn attacks as fans and Catholics told to be vigilant after football manager and others are sent devices
Celtic manager Neil Lennon, left, was the first high-profile figure associated with the Glasgow club to receive a device in the post. Photograph: Lynne Cameron/PA
Detectives fear that the letter-bomber who sent devices capable of causing "real harm" to the Celtic manager Neil Lennon and two prominent supporters of the club may carry out further attacks.
Leading Catholics and other well-known Celtic supporters have been warned to be vigilant after four crude improvised bombs in bottles wrapped with nails were sent to the Celtic manager, his lawyer, Paul McBride QC, and Trish Godman, a former deputy presiding officer of the Scottish parliament who posed in a replica Celtic strip on her last day as an MSP.
Detective Chief Superintendent John Mitchell, head of Strathclyde CID, said the devices were crude but "very definitely capable of causing considerable harm or injury to people". The devices were also very unusual, using petrol and another chemical held in a small bottle, suggesting the bomber had some knowledge of chemistry, said another source.
The discovery of the devices led Strathclyde police to warn many famous Celtic fans privately earlier this week to be extremely careful with their mail, and to report any suspicious or unusual packages to the police.
Chief Supt Ruaraidh Nicolson, head of community safety at Strathclyde, urged vigilance. "In terms of the general public, there is no danger, there is no risk," he said. "This is focused on high-profile people who have been in the media, who need to take sensible precautions."
Detectives from Strathclyde visited a number of potential targets on Monday, including Piara Powar, a leading anti-racist campaigner, and his wife Aasmah Mir, a well-known BBC Radio 5 presenter and Celtic fan born in Glasgow, who has been singled out by hardline Rangerssupporters.
Power, executive director of Football Against Racism in Europe, is closely involved with an official hearing being heard next week by the European footballing authority Uefa against Celtic's arch-rivals, Rangers, into allegations that the overwhelmingly Protestant-backed club has failed to crack down on anti-Catholic bigotry among supporters.
The alert has now been extended to include prominent Catholics, signalling that the police now fear this is an openly sectarian campaign by an individual or small group of people based in south-west Scotlandwith strong loyalist and anti-Catholic sympathies.
Sources confirmed that police have alerted Scotland's most prominent Catholic, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, and all other Scottish bishops and staff in their offices to keep a close watch on their mail. Strathclyde police stressed on Tuesday these warnings are a precaution, and said there was no intelligence and evidence that specific people would be targets.
Police in the Western Isles called in the bomb squad on Tuesday as a precaution after a suspicious parcel was addressed to another senior Celtic figure, the former Labour minister Brian Wilson, who is a club director. It was sent to a tweed factory that he part-owns. Police have yet to confirm whether the incidents are linked.
The attacks were condemned yesterday by police, political leaders and the executives of both clubs, who are due to meet on Easter Sunday for their last derby of the season; a fixture already marred by a dozens of arrests on the terraces, on-field fights and touchline disputes involving Lennon and Ally McCoist, the Rangers assistant manager.
Martin Bain, the chief executive of Rangers, said the club was utterly appalled by the incidents. "Such behaviour is to be condemned out of hand. These acts have no place in society and no place in football," he said.
Peter Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive, said Lennon and other Celtic personnel were being subjected to "repeated threats and intimidation". He said: "It is an intolerable state of affairs which must end. Celtic, from our inception, has been a club open to all. We enjoy friendship and respect throughout the world yet, here in Scotland, we are caught up in these vile events."
Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland, said the failed attacks were "despicable and cowardly". He warned that the "lunatic element responsible for this outrage" would be prosecuted vigorously. "They will be dealt with using the full force of the law. We're not going to tolerate this sort of criminality in Scottish society," he said.
A source close to the investigation said the culprit had been dubbed "the media bomber" because three of the incidents followed significant television and newspaper coverage of an Old Firm dispute.
McBride became the latest target on Friday after vigorously attacking the Scottish Football Association last week, accusing the sport's ruling body of being "dysfunctional, dishonest and biased" over its recent treatment of Lennon for disciplinary offences.
Mir was the subject of a front-page story in Scotland on Sunday last weekend linking her support for Celtic to her husband's involvement with Uefa's investigation into Rangers. The club was charged by Uefa after its fans were seen chanting violently anti-Catholic songs at two Champions league games; Powar's pan-European anti-racism organisation, Fare, took a lead in investigating both cases and is Uefa's lead complainant in both cases.
Bain has hit back, accusing Powar and Fare, accusing them of being biased and unaccountable and subjecting Rangers to "disproportionate focus."
If found guilty at a hearing to be held at Uefa's headquarters in Switzerland next Thursday, Rangers could be fined, suspended from competitions or forced to hold future European games behind closed doors.
Asked about the affair, Michel Platini, the Uefa president, made clear he believed religion and football ought to be kept apart – a position that has heavily influenced Uefa's action against Rangers. Platini said: "We have to keep politics and religion out of football and sport, that is very important. It's a very bad thing that has happened to the manager of Celtic and the whole of Uefa support him. We have to try to help football and to do something. With my heart I am with him."
Despite having few links to Celtic, Mir has been named on private bulletin boards used by hardcore Rangers fans which are now under police investigation after being accused of inflaming sectarianism and of publishing death threats against Lennon.
McCoist, who is to be Rangers' next manager, condemned the attacks on BBC Radio Scotland. He insisted that he and Lennon were friends, who saw each other socially, despite their intense on-field rivalry. "It's evil, it's absolutely evil," McCoist said. "We can't let these idiots win, and we won't let them win."
Peter Kearney, a spokesman for Cardinal O'Brien, said the incidents showed that recent attempts by the Scottish government and footballing authorities to tackle sectarianism were failing. He said the Crown Office, Scotland's prosecution authority, had repeatedly rejected requests to publish detailed statistics on the levels of anti-Catholic violence and abuse in Scotland, despite its own evidence that it was significant.
The Crown Office last published a breakdown of sectarian offences in Scotland in 2006: it showed that Catholics were six times more likely to be the victims. It also established that only 15% of cases in the previous year were football-related, suggesting anti-Catholic bigotry was spread throughout Scottish society.
"These incidents confirm this is an issue which is much bigger than football," Kearney said. "Anti-Catholic hostility is deep and wide and vicious."
The targets
Neil Lennon
An animated figure in the dugout, Neil Lennon is one of the most controversial figures in Scottish football, disciplined several times for his on-field behaviour and criticisms of referees.
The Celtic manager has had death threats from Rangers fans, had bullets sent in the post and has now been the target of two improvised incendiary bombs. His family live with 24-hour security after moving home for their safety.
Lennon, 39, is a Northern Irish Catholic, born in Lurgan, County Armagh, who grew up supporting Celtic and became club captain in 2005. He retired from international football, where he won 40 caps for Northern Ireland, after receiving loyalist death threats.
Paul McBride QC
One of Scotland's best-known and most outspoken defence lawyers, he is closely associated with Celtic. He represented Lennon in his recent disciplinary hearings with the Scottish Football Association, which last week threatened to sue McBride after he described them as "dysfunctional, dishonest and biased".
Previously a Labour supporter, McBride joined the Scottish Tories soon after David Cameron became leader and often speaks for them on criminal justice issues. He has been linked to posts as a law officer in the government. In one of his most recent cases, McBride succeeded in getting Gail Sheridan, wife of Tommy Sheridan, cleared of perjury in the disgraced socialist leader's libel action against the News of the World.
Trish Godman
Until Godman posed proudly in her Celtic strip on the day last month that she retired from the Scottish parliament, the former Labour MSP for West Renfrewshire had led a quietly successful but uncontroversial life at Holyrood.
For four years, Godman had been a deputy presiding officer, equivalent to the deputy speaker's role at the House of Commons, responsible for overseeing parliamentary sessions. Godman was a Holyrood veteran, serving since its first session in 1999.
Originally a social worker, she came into politics after marrying the veteran Labour MP for Greenock, Norman Godman. Her son from a previous relationship, Gary Mulgrew, was one of the Natwest Three who admitted banking fraud charges in the US in 2007.
