A twisted terrorist who placed a bomb on a bus during the Queen’s visit was released from prison last weekend – less than 24 hours after he was assaulted by a fellow inmate.
The Irish Mirror can reveal that Donal Billings, 72, walked free from Portlaoise Prison on Sunday.
And we have learned the pensioner – who featured on Monday night’s RTE programme A Case I Can’t Forget – was targeted by a lag on the E1 landing of the jail the night beforehand.
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We understand he was smacked over the head with a cup in the attack on Saturday.
However, he now is enjoying his first taste of freedom as he was released just over six years into his eight-and-a-half year sentence.
Last night sources described Billings as “extremely problematic” in jail, adding: “He himself was assaulted the night before he got out, he got a clatter with a cup. But it’s a relief for both prisoners and staff to have him gone.” Billings – who taught Bobby Sands Irish in Long Kesh – had previously gone on hunger strike in the jail.
In May 2011, Billings put a pipe bomb on a packed Dublin-bound bus just hours before the British monarch was due to arrive in the capital.
The sophisticated device had the potential for “great destruction” and was found in a holdall in the luggage compartment.
It comprised a firework timer switch, a copper pipe stuffed with gun powder and a two litre plastic bottle of petrol.
Billings put it on the bus when it stopped at a railway station. It was intercepted following a bomb warning he called in. Billings made another phone call days later, saying two mortars were set at Dublin Castle that evening – which coincided with a state banquet there for the late Queen.
Billings, with a previous address in Drumlish, Co Longford, said in the call: “I’m a member of the Republican Brotherhood, Squad A. Two mortars are set for Dublin Castle at 8pm.
“This is for the Queen of blood and war of Iraq.”
Last night a source said that Billings is a “dangerous character” with a history to match it, adding: “He had served time up north but following his release, gardai were not aware of him nor did he come to their attention until that time in 2011.”
Gardai believed he was working on his own at the time of the incidents.
During his case, the Special Criminal Court in Dublin heard detonation of the bomb on the bus would have resulted in the “complete destruction of the vehicle in question, by combustion”.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt said Billings had placed a highly-dangerous explosive on a public transport vehicle containing an innocent driver and many passengers.
This was an “outrageous, highly
irresponsible and dangerous act”, the judge added, which “recklessly exposed passengers, staff and members of the emergency services to very significant risk of death”.
Billings was convicted of the bomb plot and making a hoax call over the Queen threat following a two-week trial and found guilty of making fake threats related to devices supposedly placed at a Sinn Fein office in Dublin, a bus station in the city and Cork Airport.
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