A man with an “obsessive interest” in Covid-19 has been jailed after sending a suspicious package to a vaccine factory and sparking a bomb scare.
Anthony Collins, 54, also sent similar parcels to 10 Downing Street and a laboratory in Wuhan in China, among others, a court heard.
Production of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab at premises in Wrexham in Wales ground to a halt in January, causing “mayhem”.
Collins, from Kent, appeared at Maidstone Crown Court on Wednesday for sentencing after being found guilty of dispatching an article by post with the intention of inducing the belief it is likely to explode or ignite.
His trial heard that police were called and the Army’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit – bomb squad – was dispatched to the scene at the Wockhardt vaccine plant on January 27.
Only after the package had been detonated behind a 100m cordon could they be sure it contained no explosive material.
Similar packages sent by Collins to 10 Downing Street, AstraZeneca, a US Air Force base in Gloucestershire, a laboratory in Wuhan and what appeared to be the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, were intercepted.
Collins had developed an “obsessive interest” in the virus and vaccines, his trial was told.
Passing sentence, Judge David Griffith-Jones QC told Collins: “A compulsion to send bizarre communications to different bodies or authorities is one thing and may be considered a harmless idiosyncrasy.
“It doesn’t explain your behaviour here, which was deliberately to send a bomb hoax knowing perfectly well that it would cause fear and mayhem.”
He said Collins’ insistence that the contents of the package were intended to help scientists at the Wockhardt site was “childish and quite perverse”.
Collins was handed a 27-month jail sentence, with the significant time he has already spent on remand to be deducted.
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