Mother turns in nail bomber son after seeing a 'cry for help'

A man was jailed for three years yesterday for planting a nail bomb at an Indian restaurant in the road where the teenager Stephen Lawrence was killed in a racist attack.

A man was jailed for three years yesterday for planting a nail bomb at an Indian restaurant in the road where the teenager Stephen Lawrence was killed in a racist attack.

Ryan Dudney, an asphalter, wrapped a gas cylinder with taped nails and set fire to newspaper to ignite it behind the Raj Cafe in Well Hall Road, Eltham, south-east London, in October last year. He had also placed 37 nails and screws in a bottle to increase the shrapnel, said Mark Gadsden, prosecuting, at the Old Bailey.The device did not explode and the charred tool bag in which it was hidden was given to police. Dudney's mother, Yvonne, recognised it and called police because she thought it was a "cry for help".

Dudney, 22, from Eltham, pleaded guilty to making an explosive substance, a nail bomb, and causing criminal damage the night before by breaking the restaurant's window. Judge Jeremy Roberts said there had been no racial motive for the incident, which had been brought about by drink and drugs.

Dudney told the judge he had been involved in a row with a waiter at the restaurant over the weekend. He said: "I was just trying to scare him. I was not trying to cause him any danger at all." Judge Roberts called his actions "reckless and stupid. But I have no doubt you did it because you got yourself in a desperate state through alcohol and drugs," he said.