Trial told of 'English shackles on Scotland'

A man accused of terrorist offences spoke about freeing Scotland from the "shackles of England", a court was told yesterday.

Allan Muir, a reporter for the Sun - giving evidence on the first day of the trial of two men accused of conspiring to further by criminal means the aims of the Scottish National Liberation Army, and another organisation, called Flame - told the High Court in Stirling that he met the accused, Terence Webber, in a pub in Glasgow in February last year.

He said Mr Webber outlined the aims and purposes of the SNLA. "Basically they wanted Scotland to be free, a nation on its own without the shackles of England and without the English being here and taking the jobs of Scottish people."

He said Mr Webber spoke about a convicted terrorist, Andrew MacIntosh, who was in jail for bomb offences and spoke of securing his freedom. Mr Muir said his impression was that Mr Webber was "quite passionate about what he was saying".

Mr Webber, 30, of Aberdeen, and Kevin Paton, 27, of Inverurie, Grampian, both deny the conspiracy charges and deny issuing death threats, sending hoax bombs and making hoax bomb calls.

John MacDonald, assistant news editor of the Press and Journal in Aberdeen, told the court that he received a letter from a paramilitary organisation called Flame on 5 March last year stating its opposition to English "colonisation".

A month later, he took a telephone call from a man who claimed that Flame had recently carried out eight simultaneous attacks using "inert" letter bombs. It said explosives were excluded from the devices but in future they would contain them. The man also said they possessed firearms and were about to use them.

The trial continues today.