Bomber ‘meant to kill’

Press, 1 May 1984, Page 1

Bomber ‘meant to kill’

PA Wellington The person who planted the bomb at the Wellington Trades Hall intended to kill, said the police last evening. Detective Inspector E. A. Lines said that the device was made to detonate if anyone moved the case containing the bomb. ' The amount of explosives used — the equivalent of up to Ikg of gelignite — also indicated a human target rather than the building, he said. The police confirmed soon after the caretaker, Mr Ernest Abbott, was killed by

the bomb on March 27 that it contained a timing device. Mr Lines said the offence suggested planning and practice. He believed the killer had experience with explosives, access to them, and a technical interest in bomb-making. The police yesterday also outlined a profile of the type of person likely to be the killer. It depicted a loner with a paranoid personality. Mr Lines said that he had decided to make the profile public because after five weeks the police still lacked specific information to

identify the offender. He emphasised that the profile should not be regarded as exclusive from any other profile. People should not dismiss a suspicion because they were not able to associate the person with the bomb suitcase, any of the photokits or descriptions released by the police, or the Radio Windy tape of a caller who claimed to know the bomber, he said. The new psychological profile, built up with the help of various experts, shows the type of person likely to be the killer as

male, aged late-40s to 60, living alone or in circumstances which afford him privacy. He would be a handyman, methodical and tidy in approach, and would tend to be suspicious of the motives of others, and feel persecuted without justification. A common term for this is paranoid personality. He may have something against unions and could be a dogmatic individual, a solitary drinker, and if employed, favour an occupation where he could work alone or with minimum contact with other workers.