The Exeter bombing was a failed bombing attempt that took place on 22 May 2008, at the Giraffe cafe and restaurant in
Princesshay,
Exeter, England. The bomber, Nicky Reilly (5 February 1986 – 19 October 2016
), 22, from
Plymouth, who was the only person injured, pleaded guilty on 15 October 2008 to launching the failed suicide attack.
Attack
The attack took place at 12:50 while the bomber was inside a locked cubicle in the restaurant toilets. Witnesses in and around the restaurant reported hearing a loud bang. Most dismissed it, thinking the sound had come from a nearby building site. Another witness reported that it "sounded more like gunshots than a bomb, like a lightbulb exploding".
Police were immediately called to the scene and the restaurant was evacuated.
Evacuation
After the restaurant was evacuated, police evacuated and cordoned off the immediate area in fear of another device. This cordon was originally confined to the
Princesshay area, but was later extended to cover the whole of the city centre, from the bottom of the High Street to Sidwell Street. Another device was found in the vicinity of the cafe, but was disabled by a bomb disposal team.
Timeline
Thursday 22 May 2008
*10.20 am Nicky Reilly boards a double-decker Stagecoach bus number X38 in Bretonside bus station in Plymouth bound for Paris Street, Exeter.
*12.05 pm Reilly arrives in Exeter.
*12.50 pm Police and ambulance services receive calls from members of the public reporting that a man has been injured in an explosion at the Giraffe cafe and restaurant in Princesshay.
*1pm A 100 m cordon is established and police begin to evacuate the area.
*1.40 pm Police confirm it is believed an explosion has occurred.
*2pm The injured man is taken to the
Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital
The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (commonly referred to as RD&E), and with a main site sometimes known as Wonford Hospital, is a large teaching hospital situated in Exeter, Devon, England, and is run by the Royal Devon University Healthcare N ...
.
*2.20 pm Bomb disposal officers arrive at the scene with
sniffer dogs
A detection dog or sniffer dog is a dog that is trained to use its senses to detect substances such as explosives, illegal drugs, wildlife scat, currency, blood, and contraband electronics such as illicit mobile phones. The sense most used by ...
.
*3pm The city centre, including Princesshay, the High Street, Paris Street and part of Sidwell Street, is cordoned off and evacuated by police.
*3.25 pm Police confirm that a man is in custody following the explosion.
*4.15 pm Bomb disposal experts prepare to enter the Giraffe restaurant. Police reveal they have been called to three other reports of suspicious devices in the city centreat
Primark
Primark Stores Limited (; trading as Penneys in the Republic of Ireland) is an Irish multinational fast fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. It has stores across Europe and in the United States. The Penneys brand is not us ...
,
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
and on a bicyclebut all have been found to be false alarms.
*5.15 pm
Forensic
Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ...
officers begin to examine the Giraffe restaurant after bomb disposal experts declare the scene safe.
*6.50 pm Police reveal two devices have been found, one of which exploded and another that was made safe.
*7pm A phased lifting of the cordons begins and workers are allowed to return to shops and offices within the exclusion zone to collect their belongings, six hours after they were evacuated. Motorists are also able to retrieve their cars from the car parks in Princesshay and Southernhay.
Friday 23 May
*12:00 pm Police and business leaders hold a press conference regarding the previous day's events.
*12:47 The police reveal CCTV images of Reilly and appeal for witnesses on the X38 bus from Plymouth Bretonside to Paris Street bus station, Exeter.
*~1:00 pm A bomb disposal team arrive at Reilly's home in Plymouth as police investigate his flat.
*~14:00 Part of Plymouth is sealed off after a suspect package is found. It is later found not to be a threat.
*~15:00 Armed police target two men who are drinking at the Bagatelle cafe in Plymouth city centre. One is arrested and the other is said to be helping police.
Saturday 24 May
*~11:00 Businesses in both cities reveal that custom is back to normal.
Monday 26 May
*~14:00 Nicky Reilly is discharged from hospital and into police custody.
Aftermath
The large cordon set up around the bomb site caused considerable disruption. Not only were shops along the High Street shut, but the city's main bus operator
Stagecoach Devon had to re-route their buses causing traffic delays. The city's bus station was also evacuated.
It was many hours after the attack that the cordon, which had stretched to include Exeter's bus station, was reduced, and many roads surrounding the shopping centre re-opened
On Friday, all shopsexcept the restaurant involvedwere re-opened as usual. The incident was estimated to have cost the local economy approximately £2.5 million.
Investigations
A team of about twenty specialists (including forensic officers, intelligence experts and detectives) from
Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism branch
SO15, was brought in to help the
Devon and Cornwall Police
Devon and Cornwall Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial counties of Devon and Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly) in England. The force serves approximately 1.8 million people over an area of .
...
with their investigations.
Soon after the arrest police began searching the Muslim Community Centre in St Jude's,
Plymouth.
Arrests
Since the explosion in
Exeter a total of four arrests were made in connection with the incident. Under the
Terrorism Act 2006
The Terrorism Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received royal assent on 30 March 2006, after being introduced on 12 October 2005. The Act creates new offences related to terrorism, and amends existing ones. Th ...
a person arrested for terrorism offences can be detained in police custody for 28 days without being charged.
Nicky Reilly
Nicky Raymond Reilly (later known as Mohamed Abdulaziz Rashid Saeed-Alim), aged 22, was born in Plymouth, where he lived with his mother, Kim. He had previously been detained in a mental health hospital.
It was subsequently reported that he had learning difficulties and Asperger's syndrome.
After his conversion to Islam, he changed his name
and came under the influence of Pakistani religious extremists,
who radicalised him into detonating the nail bomb in Exeter.
On 3 June 2008, he was charged with three offences, one under the
Terrorism Act 2006
The Terrorism Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received royal assent on 30 March 2006, after being introduced on 12 October 2005. The Act creates new offences related to terrorism, and amends existing ones. Th ...
and a further two under the
Explosive Substances Act 1883
The Explosive Substances Act 1883 (c. 3) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It makes it illegal to use (or conspire or intend to use) any explosive substance to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury ...
. He appeared before magistrates in a secure court in Westminster, London on 4 June 2008, and was remanded in custody.
On 15 October 2008 Reilly pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder and preparing a terrorist attack.
Information released after his guilty plea revealed that Reilly was obsessed with martyrdom and wanted to cause as much death and injury as possible. On 30 January 2009 Reilly was sentenced to
life imprisonment with a minimum term of 18 years.
On 20 October 2016 it was reported that 30-year-old Reilly had died at
HMP Manchester.
On 7 November an inquest into his death was opened and adjourned. The inquest concluded in December 2018: it found that Reilly was found hanged from a light fitting in his cell, and that it was likely that he acted impulsively and did not intend to kill himself.
Other arrests
On 23 May 2008, there was an evacuation of
Plymouth city centre in which armed police arrested another person. A second individual was detained and helped police with their enquiries, but was later released.
At 17:30 on 28 May 2008 a fourth man was detained for questioning.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Exeter attempted bombing, 2008
2008 in England
2008 attempted bombing
Attacks on buildings and structures in 2008
Attacks on restaurants in the United Kingdom
Attacks in the United Kingdom in 2008
Building bombings in England
Crime in Devon
Failed terrorist attempts in the United Kingdom
Improvised explosive device bombings in 2008
May 2008 crimes
May 2008 events in the United Kingdom
Terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in 2008