The 2005 Brisbane bomb hoax involved several bomb threats that were made to police in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on 14 and 15 November 2005. The threats resulted in the halting of public transport services throughout the city. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
On 14 November 2005, three calls were made to police warning of bombs on buses and trains in Brisbane. All bus and train services in the city were evacuated at 12:00 pm and again at 4:45 pm. The shutdowns caused major problems for the thousands of people who relied on the services. [5]
At 7.32 am on 15 November, another call was made to police telling them to remain vigilant and "keep their eye on the ball." Each of the four calls had been made from different a payphone in suburban Brisbane. [4]
On the night of 15 November, Rodney Bruce Watson, a 46-year-old truck driver from Munruben, was arrested and charged with four counts of making bomb threats. Police reported that his fingerprints had been found on three of the four payphones used to make the bomb threats, although Watson's lawyer said Watson claimed he had not "been to a phone box in years." [7]
Watson appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on 16 November. He did not enter a plea and made an application for bail. The bail hearing was adjourned, pending a psychiatric report on Watson, and he was remanded in custody. Watson reportedly said to police that he had been "inspired by the recent arrests of terrorist suspects in southern states," and he subsequently had two applications for bail denied on the basis that there was a risk that he would reoffend. [8]
On 7 March 2006, Watson pleaded guilty to four counts of making a bomb threat, [9] and on 28 July was sentenced to three years in prison, to be suspended after 12 months, followed by a supervision period of three years. With time already served this meant Watson was released from prison in November 2006. [10]
A bomb threat or bomb scare is a threat, usually verbal or written, to detonate an explosive or incendiary device to cause property damage, death, injuries, and/or incite fear, whether or not such a device actually exists.
On Thursday, 21 July 2005, four attempted bomb attacks by Islamist extremists disrupted part of London's public transport system as a follow up attack from the 7 July 2005 London bombings that occurred two weeks earlier. The explosions occurred around midday at Shepherd's Bush, Warren Street and Oval stations on the London Underground, and on London Buses route 26 in Bethnal Green on Hackney Road. A fifth bomber dumped his device without attempting to set it off.
The Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings were carried out on 20 July 1982 in London, England. Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated two improvised explosive devices during British military ceremonies in Hyde Park and Regent's Park, both in central London.
John Howard Amundsen was the first Queenslander to be charged under national anti-terrorist laws in Australia. These charges were later dropped.
Terrorism in Australia deals with terrorist acts in Australia as well as steps taken by the Australian government to counter the threat of terrorism. In 2004 the Australian government has identified transnational terrorism as also a threat to Australia and to Australian citizens overseas. Australia has experienced acts of modern terrorism since the 1960s, while the federal parliament, since the 1970s, has enacted legislation seeking to target terrorism.
Swatting is a criminal harassment tactic of deceiving an emergency service into sending a police or emergency service response team to another person's address. This is triggered by false reporting of a serious law enforcement emergency, such as a bomb threat, murder, hostage situation, or a false report of a mental health emergency, such as reporting that a person is allegedly suicidal or homicidal and may or may not be armed, among other things.
Barack Obama, who was the 44th president of the United States, was involved in multiple security incidents, including several assassination threats and plots, starting from when he became a presidential candidate in 2007. Secret Service protection for Obama began after he received a death threat in 2007, while serving as the junior United States senator from Illinois and running for president. This marked the earliest time a candidate received such protection before being nominated. Security was increased early for Obama due to fears of possible assassination attempts by white supremacist or other racist groups or individuals against the first African American major party presidential nominee.
A racial hoax occurs when a person falsely claims that a crime was committed by member of a specific race. The crime may be fictitious, or may be an actual crime.
The Mosman bomb hoax took place in the Lower North Shore Sydney suburb of Mosman, New South Wales, Australia on 3 August 2011. An apparent collar bomb was placed around the neck of 18-year-old student Madeleine Pulver, by a balaclava-clad home intruder. A note attached to the device stated that any attempt to alert law enforcement would "trigger an immediate BRIAN DOUGLAS WELLS event". Brian Wells was a pizza delivery driver who was killed in a bank robbery involving a collar bomb in 2003.
Joshua Bonehill-Paine is an English far-right nationalist, internet troll, and convicted criminal from Yeovil, Somerset. Styling himself as a "nationalist, fascist, theorist and supporter of white rights", he ran a blog called The Daily Bale which published several racist and anti-immigration hoaxes, as well as false accusations against his opponents. He has described himself as "a proud anti-semite".
Mohammed Junaid Thorne is an Australian Islamic preacher of Aboriginal heritage from Perth, Western Australia. Thorne is noted for his controversial views on Islamic militant groups including Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Thorne is a member of the Australian branch of Millatu Ibrahim, a Salafi organisation banned in Germany. In August 2015 Thorne was sentenced to between four and eight months jail for travelling on an aircraft under a false name, and using fake ID to obtain his ticket.
Joshua Ryne Goldberg is an American internet troll, convicted of attempting a bombing on the 14th anniversary of the September 11 attacks while posing as an Islamic terrorist affiliated with ISIS.
Tiahleigh Alyssa Rose Palmer was a 12-year-old Australian girl who lived in Logan City, Queensland. She was murdered on 30 October 2015. Her remains were found six days later and her foster father, Rick Thorburn, was charged on 20 September 2016 with her murder. Thorburn pleaded guilty to the murder before the Supreme Court of Queensland on 25 May 2018.
A large number of Australian schools received hoax bomb threats in late January and early February 2016. Other similar phone threats, including school shootings and chemical attacks, were also received by a number of schools across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. A total of 591 threatening calls were received by Australian schools.
In early 2017, a wave of more than 2,000 bomb threats were made against Jewish Community Centers in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, and Denmark. Two arrests and two convictions were made in connection with the threats: Michael Ron David Kadar, a dual American-Israeli citizen, who received a ten year sentence, along with Juan M. Thompson, a former journalist, who received a five year sentence.
Elijah Doughty, a 14-year-old Indigenous Australian riding a motorbike, was involved in a fatal traffic collision with a ute on 29 August 2016. The 56-year-old white male driver of the ute was the owner of the motorbike, which had been stolen the previous day. Although he was chasing Doughty, it is unclear where Doughty got the bike and there is no evidence that Doughty had stolen it; his friends said that he was handed the bike at Gribble Creek Reserve, where he was killed.
On December 28, 2017, a fatal swatting incident occurred in Wichita, Kansas, United States. During an online dispute between Casey Viner and Shane Gaskill, regarding the video game Call of Duty: WWII, Viner threatened to have Gaskill swatted. Gaskill responded by giving him a false address for his residence, one that was occupied by an uninvolved person, Andrew Finch. Viner then asked Tyler Barriss to make the required fraudulent call to initiate the swatting. Wichita Police responded to the address, and as Finch was exiting his house, police officer Justin Rapp fatally shot him.
MalikSanchez is an American streamer, YouTuber, and self-identified incel, who in April 2021 was arrested on one count of conveying false and misleading information and hoaxes, after he allegedly made a hoax threat to detonate a bomb at a restaurant in the Flatiron District of Manhattan in February 2021. He later pleaded guilty to the charges.
The 1971 Qantas bomb hoax was an extortion and robbery committed by Peter Macari and Raymond Poynting on 26 May 1971, where Macari, under the alias of "Mr. Brown", extorted $500,000 from Qantas by informing officials that he had hidden a bomb onboard Qantas Flight 755 from Sydney to Hong Kong, and that the device would explode if the plane were to descend below 20,000 feet. In exchange for the safety of the 128 passengers and crew onboard Flight 755, Macari demanded a ransom of $500,000. While authorities negotiated with Macari, Flight 755 was forced to circle Sydney; however after over six hours in the air and with fuel supplies dwindling, Qantas was forced to concede. At around 5:45 p.m., in Chifley Square, just outside Qantas company headquarters, Captain RJ Ritchie, a Qantas general manager, handed Macari the ransom money through the window of a Volkswagen Kombi. Sometime after 6:00 pm, Qantas received a final call from Macari stating that there was no bomb onboard Flight 755. The plane was able to land safely at Sydney Airport around 6:45 p.m.