Firework ‘bomb’ case in court

The soldier had travelled from Edinburgh after being called in by police to tackle the “improvised device” at a flat in Queen Street in the town.
He described it as being made from three fireworks in a sock and said it was “more of a harassment type but it could have caused damage, a fire or injury.”
But he admitted to defence solicitor Liz Dougan that the device could also have been classified as a firework.
In the dock on Wednesday, Michael Page, described as a prisoner at Dumfries, and Tessa Banks, 33, of Church Street, Dumfries, pleaded not guilty to making or knowingly having under their control an improvised explosive device – a sock containing three tubular igniferous devices and wiring – at Queen Street between November 2015 and March last year.
The charge alleges that they had the device under such circumstances as to give rise to a reasonable suspicion that they were not making such explosive substance and did not have it in their possession or under their control for a lawful object.
The alert was raised after a women who had been at the house stopped a police van for a lift home and told them there was a bomb made out of fireworks.
She told a jury of ten men and five women at Dumfries that she had been concerned that something might happen and someone might get hurt and had been told by Tessa Banks that “Michael had made it.”
The trial before Sheriff Brian Mohan continues.