AN IRA SYMPATHISER, who was found to be in possession of a number of violent manuals, has been sentenced to three years and two months in prison. 

Christopher Partington pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court to having six different manuals that could have been used to plot a terror attack, including one entitled The Poor Man’s James Bond. 

The Poor Man’s James Bond, a 479-page manual, includes advice on do-it-yourself explosives, associated electronics, how to make automatic weapons, unarmed combat and poisons, with detailed illustrations. 

Other documents included step-by-step advice on how to construct homemade bombs, gunpowder, rockets, fuses, detonators and booby-traps.

The 33-year-old pleaded guilty to six counts of collection of information, contrary to section 58(1)(a) of the Terrorism Act 2000.

He also pleaded guilty to illegally having shotgun charges, which were found in his caravan, under section 21(2) of the Firearms Act 1968. 

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Partington could not lawfully have the cartridges for five years after his release from prison, due to an earlier convention. 

Partington admitted to collecting and reading all the documents but claimed in a police interview he came across them by accident and was “just curious”.

He denied being a terrorist or a member of the IRA.

Jenny Hopkins, head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said that Partington claimed to be someone with an interest in IRA history who came across the terrorist manuals “by accident and was curious about their contents”.

“Under the law that is not a reasonable excuse and he pleaded guilty.

“This case is a warning to those who download material from the internet that may be of use to terrorists. They could be breaking the law just by having it and be sentenced to imprisonment like Christopher Partington.”

Police discovered the six electronic documents on Partington’s mobile phone which they recovered from an address linked to him in Manchester.