Admitted bomber says his friend took no part

By David Clarkson

Bottle-bomber Raymond Gary Coombs says his friend Scott James Wreford Kelly took no part in placing dry ice bombs around Christchurch on a Friday afternoon last August.

But his evidence was challenged by crown prosecutor Brent Stanaway at the trial of Kelly who denies any role in the five bombings.

Coombs, 27, and Damien Gary White, 25, have already pleaded guilty to the charges. According to Coombs’ evidence to Judge David Saunders and a Christchurch District Court jury today, he and White placed all five bombs.

Mr Stanaway particularly challenged Coombs’ evidence that Kelly, 25, stayed in the parked car while the bottle bomb that injured a cleaner in the Bus Exchange was placed.

Witnesses referred to three men being there when the bomb was placed, but Coombs said the third man was a friend from a nearby hotel who happened to meet them, asked what they were doing, and stayed a few minutes.

He was not prepared to name this person, who the crown described as “a mystery man”.

Coombs said the bottle bombs were his idea. He thought they were harmless and he did all the driving around the city that day.

“Scott (Kelly) wasn’t happy about it. He wanted to be at work at day long. I took him against his will.”

He said he had taken advantage of the fact that Kelly did not know Christchurch and did not know where he was. But he acknowledged that Kelly never tried to get out of the car or take a taxi to his job as a house insulator.

In the crown opening on Monday, prosecutor Kathy Bell said the three men in the car had “encouraged and assisted each other throughout”.

Coombs said the group had set off two bombs as a trial run at a Barbadoes Street property.

After saying Kelly never went into the Bus Exchange, Coombs could not explain why he sent a text message to Kelly two days after the blasts, asking: “What went down in the bus depos bro?”

Kelly replied: “No cam (camera) pointing at the seat where it went down. Fully deniable.”

The crown has the record of all the text messages among the group.

Coombs said he thought the bombings were very funny, until the cleaner was injured. He decided there would be no more bombs, but White later set off another while Coombs and Kelly were at The Palms shopping mall getting some keys cut.

An acoustics expert said he had done testing and found the noise of a bottle bomb could be 170 decibels, which was comparable to the noise of an artillery piece and could cause permanent damage to some people’s hearing.

A teenage witness said he had been waiting in the Bus Exchange when he saw the three men put a plastic bottle into a shopping bag and leave it among the seating, on the floor.

There was a loud bang after the cleaner took the bag away. He told Judge David Saunders and the jury that he saw the three men laughing after the explosion when the message came over the public address system to evacuate the building.

The 53-year-old cleaner gave evidence at the trial today, telling how the bottle exploded at his cleaning room after he had taken the bag away, thinking it was rubbish.

He collapsed and had to be treated. He had cuts to his hand and his ears were ringing, and he still had hearing problems.

The crown closed its case at 4.45pm and this was followed by legal argument in the absence of the jury. The trial is due to resume on Wednesday morning.