A hoaxer who caused panic in Omagh was identified by a voice expert, it was disclosed yesterday.
Peter McKenna (26), admitted making 12 false telephone alerts after detectives called in the analyst Dr John French, who had helped prove Maj Charles Ingram cheated on the quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
The judge condemned people who have plagued the Co Tyrone town since 29 people were killed in the August 1998 bombing.
Sentencing McKenna to four years in jail, suspended for three years, Judge Jeffrey Foote told him his offences were so grave he could have been locked up for seven years.
"Making hoax bomb calls anywhere in Northern Ireland is very serious, but it's particularly serious in Omagh which was devastated as a result of the bomb. They have suffered great pain and continue to do so."
McKenna, of Inisclan Road in Mountfield, outside Omagh, made his 999 calls between March 2002 and February 2003, using telephone boxes and his mobile phone.
Mr Phil Mateer QC, prosecuting, told Omagh Crown Court that in his first call McKenna claimed a bomb was due to go off outside the town's courthouse in 15 minutes. That was the same location wrongly given by the "Real IRA" in the Omagh bombing.
McKenna also claimed explosives had been left at the local police station, two pubs and two private addresses over an 11-month campaign of night-time calls. In an alert in May 2002, he told police he could not give all the information because he would be shot by the IRA. He also claimed to have information about the Omagh bomb but demanded £1,000 in cash before he would tell detectives.
Police twice found him standing at phone boxes just after calls had been made. "You weren't, to put it mildly, hard to catch," Judge Foote told him during sentencing.