Teenager given two years detention over hoax bomb call
( 2001-11-24 14:22 ) (7 )

An 18-year-old student was ordered to be detained for two years Friday for making a hoax bomb call to London's main Heathrow airport four days after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The court in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, heard that Alexander Walters sparked a major security alert which could have led to the closure of one of the world's busiest airports.

Walters, born in Russia but adopted by a British couple, told police he had made the call from his mobile phone as "a joke" while walking his dog.

He told the operator at the airport: "There's a bomb at Heathrow Airport -- you've got exactly one hour."

After a risk assessment, security staff decided against closing the airport and police traced the call to Walters' mobile phone.

"I did not think there would be such a reaction. It was just a joke, just a silly joke," Walter told police, the court heard.

Tom Crowther, defending Walters, said he had been put in an orphanage when he was three months old, had never known his parents and was adopted only two years ago.

As a result of his upbringing he had a limited sense of responsibility, and his actions "were very much akin to the mischief of a child -- the child that in many ways he still is."

Ignoring Walters' tears, Judge John Curran sentenced him to two years in a young offenders' institution.

He said: "The nature of the offence is such that the priority has to be to deter other people from committing these type of offences."