Ex-IRA bombmaker Dessie Ellis admits he was ‘lucky’ to be cleared over Hyde Park bombing in extraordinary interview on Mail’s new podcast [Video]

Former IRA terrorist Dessie Ellis has admitted in a new Mail podcast launching today that he was ‘lucky’ to be cleared over his alleged role in the dual bomb attack on London in 1982 that left 11 people dead.

The ex-bombmaker, 71, was extradited to Britain in 1990 to face charges of building the devices that killed 11 soldiers. 

On the morning of July 20, 1982, a nail bomb was detonated in a car in Hyde Park as soldiers of the Household Cavalry were passing on their horses, seven of which died. 

Two hours later, a second device exploded underneath the bandstand in Regent’s Park, as members of the Royal Green Jackets were performing to a crowd. 

Speaking in an interview with the Daily Mail’s executive editor in Ireland, John Lee, on From Bomb to Ballot: The History of Sinn Féin, the one-time TV repair man, now 71, says he was acquitted because of a ‘loophole’.