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| Man guilty of vodka poison plot | Man guilty of vodka poison plot |
| (31 minutes later) | |
| A man has been convicted of sending bottles of poisoned vodka through the post in a campaign for Scottish independence. | |
| Wayne Cook, 45, of Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, had denied using noxious substances to cause harm. | |
| Manchester Crown Court heard he was one of two men who sent bottles of vodka filled with caustic soda to a Scottish journalist and a Lancashire councillor. | Manchester Crown Court heard he was one of two men who sent bottles of vodka filled with caustic soda to a Scottish journalist and a Lancashire councillor. |
| Steven Robinson, a Scot, pleaded guilty to the same charges. | |
| The two packages were sent in April last year to John Wright, a member of Blackburn with Darwen Council, and Scottish Daily Express journalist Myra Philp. | |
| Be in no doubt these men are terrorists Det Ch Supt Tony Porter | |
| Royal Mail staff intercepted the parcel to Mr Wright but the second made it to Ms Philp. | |
| It was accompanied by a note signed by the Scottish National Liberation Army (SNLA). | |
| The note threatened that English people would be killed "at random and with no discrimination or compunction" in order to convince the British Government to withdraw from Scotland. | |
| There was also a threat to poison England's water supplies. | |
| Nerve damage | |
| Dr John Jackson, a toxicology expert told the court that the concentration of the caustic soda in the two miniature bottles was so high that the "worst-case scenario" for the intended recipients was death. | |
| He said it could also have caused blindness, nerve damage or serious burns to the skin. | |
| A serious risk would have been posed to members of the public or postal staff if the bottles had broken in transit, the court was told. | |
| Det Ch Supt Tony Porter, head of Greater Manchester Police's counter-terrorism unit, speaking after the verdict, said: "Be in no doubt these men are terrorists. | |
| "This was not some clumsy joke - it was a serious attempt to cause real harm and intimidation." |