A man wanted for questioning about a parcel bomb attack on a Dundee couple may have posted more packages to other targets before fleeing Britain, police said last night.
After carrying out extensive checks on passenger flight lists, police now say Iranian-born physicist Cyrus Ghiassy has left the UK.
His hire car was found abandoned three days ago at London's Heathrow airport, although it was believed then that he was still in the south of England, where he had been living.
Police said last night: ''Further inquiries indicate that Ghiassy has left the country. At this time, investigating officers cannot discount the possibility that further packages, which may contain explosive devices, are in existence, possibly having been despatched prior to Ghiassy's departure from the UK.
''Whilst police have no information to suggest a specific threat, in view of the previous incident, anyone who has knowledge of Ghiassy is asked to contact Norfolk Constabulary.''
Earlier yesterday, a Scottish sheriff was warned he could be the next target of the parcel bomber.
Detectives advised Sheriff Richard Davidson to take extra security measures as police stepped up the hunt for 57-year-old Ghiassy, who holds British citizenship and for who's arrest on a charge of attempted murder a warrant has been issued.
Mr Davidson presided over a civil case in 1995, in which Ghiassy was sued for #18,000 in unpaid legal fees by his former solicitors, the Dundee firm of Lawson, Coull & Duncan. Ghiassy lost and was bankrupted.
Former police officer Mike Coyne, a forensic handwriting expert who was injured in a parcel bomb blast at his home in Dundee last week, testified in the court case on behalf of the legal firm that receipts produced by Ghiassy purporting to have been written by senior partner Derek Lawson were forgeries.
Mr Coyne, 63, is recovering in hospital from serious injuries he suffered when the parcel bomb exploded.
His wife Margaret, 60, who suffered neck and abdominal injuries, was discharged from hospital on Saturday.
Two devices identical to the one which injured the couple were intercepted and defused by bomb disposal experts at a freight depot in Thetford, Norfolk.
One of them was addressed to the invalid wife of Mr Lawson at their St Andrews home. The other is understood to have been addressed to retired Home Office handwriting expert Michael Ansell, in Kent.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article