Court hears claims man jailed for handling pipe bombs wrongly denied proper chance to explain he was innocently putting up flags

Senior judges were told Noel Logan was misinformed about the limits of his DNA connection to the devices.

Defence barrister Martin O’Rourke KC argued on Friday: “How could he possibly provide an explanation that would meet all of the issues police were presenting to him, inaccurately as it transpired.”

Logan is seeking to overturn his conviction for possessing explosives with intent to endanger life.

The 38-year-old, of Nelson Drive, was prosecuted over blasts outside three homes in the Waterside area between July 2017 and September 2019.

Two of the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were found at Montgomery Close while the third was uncovered at Bonds Place.

Police investigating the attacks arrested him following a house search in December 2020.

With Logan’s DNA detected on tape attached to bomb remnants, scientific experts assessed the chances of the forensics in two of the cases not being his as one in a billion.

There was a one in 1.7 million chance that DNA on the third device belonged to someone else.

Fitted with ball bearings and nails which acted as shrapnel with the IEDs exposed, they were described as capable of inflicting serious injury or death.

Logan was said to have lived less than a mile and a half from the three targeted houses.

In March, Logan was handed an eight-year sentence following a non-jury trial.

He continues to deny any involvement in the pipe bomb attacks and claims there is an innocent explanation for the DNA link.

A roll of tape he used to attach flags to lamp posts for Twelfth of July celebrations was discarded and then deployed by someone else to construct the pipe bombs, according to Logan’s case.

Mr O’Rourke disputed the assessment of forensic evidence and an adverse inference drawn against his client.

“The (trial) judge wrongly rejected the evidence of the defendant and his witnesses that they had put up flags and used tape in the course of doing so,” he submitted.

The court heard Logan was questioned as part of a wider investigation into 20 devices in the city, but only linked to three incidents in which he was not suspected of deploying the pipe bombs.

Claiming evidential deficiencies around how the IEDs were constructed or stored, as well as the quantity of forensic material recovered from them, Mr O’Rourke insisted a secondary transfer from a roll of tape used by others cannot be discounted.

He stressed that police incorrectly told Logan his DNA was “all over” the bombs.

“The appellant’s case is simply put that he never possessed any of the IEDS,” counsel said.

“If he never handled the devices what possible explanation could he give for his DNA being all over the devices?”

Earlier, the court heard police had information to suggest another man potentially connected to loyalist paramilitaries was centrally involved in putting up flags in the area.

According to Mr O’Rourke, up to 15 people used the same batches of tape to erect banners.

“If some of the others in that group had connections with loyalist paramilitaries, that would explain quite a lot,” the barrister added.

“It is another strand that adds to the plausibility of what (Logan) is saying.”

Reserving judgment in the appeal, Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan pledged to give a decision as soon as possible.