Bizarre bomb plan

Press, 19 December 1981, Page 4

Bizarre bomb plan

Because he wanted to “end it all" a man tied a homemade bomb consisting of a container filled with petrol and gravel around his former girlfriend’s neck and threatened to blow them both up. Mr Justice Roper was told in the High Court yesterday. Rex Donald Hitchcox. aged 30. a prison inmate, had his term extended by one year when he appeared for sentence on charges of arson, threatening to kill and attempting to escape from jail.

Mr D. J. Taffs, for Hitchcox. said that the offences arose from his client’s pyschological condition. He had not gone to his former girlfriend’s house with the intention of setting fire to it.

Hitchcox was in a disturbed state of mind and wanted to "end it all" because he realised that his association with his girlfriend was finished.

After drinking for three days, taking pills and smok-

ing cannabis Hitchcox was in an extremely confused state. He resorted to alcohol and drugs to ward off the deep states of depression he suffered from. At the woman's house he cut the telephone cord, fastened the nasty contraption around her neck and told her that he was going to kill her and himself. He was resorting to his usual ploy of warding off pressures with which he could not cope. In a desperate attempt to escape the woman pleaded with Hitchcox to be allowed to go to the toilet and he consented. Once inside she got the bomb off herself but Hitchcox became suspicious about the time she was taking and burst in. Seeing what she was up to Hitchcox lit the fuse but even in his disoriented state he realised almost in a flash what he had done and reneged on his plan to send them both to eternity.

Grabbing the woman by the arm he dragged her out of the toilet and down the corridor. They had gone only a short distance when the bomb went off shattering the toilet- and setting fire to the house which was extensively damaged. Hitchcox had not intended' to set fire to the house but wanted to wreak vengeance on one of the very few women he really cared about because she had rejected him, and on himself. The owner of the house had lost nothing but the insurance company had to pay out. Mr Taffs said. His Honour said that Hitchcox was serving a sentence of two years and a half imprisonment imposed only a matter of days ago on charges of aggravated robbery and conspiracy to rob. The attempt to escape was a pathetic effort which had no prospect of success. He had been sawing away at the

bars at 7.30 a.m. where a prison officer could hear him.

“As for the arson and threatening to kill, that was a most bizarre incident and could only be accounted for by alcohol and drugs. I accept that your primary purpose was to end it all by killing yourself and your de facto wife who had rejected you or perhaps to convince her that she should come back to you," his Honour said.

"Matters got out of control. you then had a change of heart and did what you could to prevent injury to the woman or damage to the house."

Some sympathy was appropriate * but not to the extent that a concurrent term of imprisonment would be appropriate, said his Honour who made a strong recommendation that Hitchcox receive psychiatric counselling.