Out of all the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) projects that any person can turn to, “homemade bombs” is probably the last thing you want on your To-Do List for fairly obvious reasons.
On Thursday (19 May), a polytechnic student, now 19-years-old, pleaded guilty to:
- Two charges of making explosives without a licence
- One charge of exhibiting a rash act in relation to a dangerous or harmful substance
- One charge of abetting a rash act in relation to a dangerous or harmful substance.
Three similar charges are being taken into consideration before his final sentencing on 30 June.
The accused cannot be named by law because he was 18 when he committed those offences and is thereby protected by the Children and Young Persons Act.
When Boredom Explodes, Literally
From the court documents, the accused has been treated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the years leading up to his offences in 2019 and 2020.
At that time, he was merely a student at the Institute of Technical Education.
During the COVID-19 partial lockdown period, the teenager took to researching explosives on the internet by watching YouTube videos.
Dear lords, the internet is wonderful for its easy accessibility to information, but it can really backfire quickly.
With the knowledge he gathered, he used simple items that he could either buy or already possessed at home to manufacture a few improved pipe bombs, after making what the court described as “sparkler bombs”.
Afterwards, on 7 June 2020, he met up with two friends at East Coast Park where they would detonate the bombs.
He rode his electric scooter there and the three chose the nearby Skate Park along the East Coast Parkway as their testing site.
Between 8pm and 11pm, the teen denotated several sparkler bombs and pipe bombs.
He would place them on the grass patch, light the fuses, and run away before the bombs exploded.
…Without wearing any safety gear, fireproof clothes, whatsoever. The only “safety consideration” in place was putting enough distance between himself and the constructed bombs.
Meanwhile, he recorded the explosion on the grass patch using his mobile phone, with his friends playing witness the entire time.
One of the pipe bombs didn’t detonate, so he brought it home and threw it into the rubbish chute of the housing block where he lived.
Hazardous material mixed with flammables, possibly going into an incinerator in the worst-case scenario, or being buried in a landfill.
This isn’t going to end well.
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How He Got Caught
Then he posted the video clips—yes, plural—on his Instagram account.
The pipe bombs weren’t his first experiments either.
Earlier in April 2019, he set off two improved sparkler bombs at a beach area along the East Coast Parkway.
He placed it on a raised platform before telling his friend to light it and throw it towards the sea, to which his friend complied.
The youth recorded the entire proceeding, and also posted that video on his Instagram. The short footage showed the device emitting a series of flashes, and an explosion could be heard.
Would you look at that, free evidence.
Hence, it should come as no surprise that another individual filed a police report on 19 June 2020, linking the police officers to the incriminating Instagram account.
His social media bio and feed probably had parts of his identity on show too, which only makes the officers’ job easier at catching the culprit.
The police raided the teen’s house a few hours later and confiscated multiple items related to the construction of the homemade bombs. This included another pipe bomb that the teen was planning to set off the following month.
The Singapore Armed Forces’ explosives ordnance disposal engineers later got rid of the pipe bomb in a safe manner.
Remorseful and Love for Tinkering
The teen, who was not represented by a lawyer, confessed to the court that he felt remorseful, and he only wanted to focus on his studies for the time being.
He doesn’t deny that he likes tinkering with things and experimenting, like really getting his hands into the nitty gritty of things. His current course of study makes sense too, as he’s pursuing a Diploma Degree in aerospace engineering.
Mate, you might want to calm down. You’re no Tony Stark, and even that billionaire-genius got blown up by one of his own explosives and nearly died from palladium poisoning.
District Judge Kessier Soh bluntly told the teen that his actions were “very dangerous” and that he and his friends could have been badly injured.
Judge Soh added, “Thankfully, no injury was caused to anyone but I hope you realise by now that you should not be doing such things. You might like to tinker with things and experiment, but there’s a right way to do it.”
Seeing that the boy was appropriately remorseful, the judge didn’t call for a suitability report for reformative training but will order one if it is necessary.
For context, reformative training is a regimented rehabilitation programme reserved for offenders under 21 who have committed relatively serious crimes.
First-time offenders between 16 and 21 are typically offered a less severe punishment, namely probation.
Probation allows these young offenders to continue with their studies or employment while serving their sentences.
Those found guilty of acting rashly or negligently with a dangerous and harmful substance, which is likely to hurt or wound others, may be jailed up to a year and fined up to $5,000.
Those who manufacture explosives without a licence may face a maximum jail term of three years and fined up to $10,000.
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Featured Image: Shutterstock / Paolo De Gasperis
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