By 
JUDGEMENT has been reserved in the case of a Co Tyrone man accused of trying to kill two PSNI officers with an improvised bomb.
Charlie Love (31), of Bridge Street, Strabane, went on trial in March 2025 accused of the attempted murder of police officers in the town.
He was further charged with one count of causing an explosion likely to endanger life and one count of possessing explosives with intent to endanger life.
All the charges are dated November 17, 2022.
His 28-year-old partner Symone Murphy, from the same address, was charged with withholding information which might assist terrorists.
Both denied all the charges they faced.
During the conclusion of the trial proceedings today (Tuesday), Belfast Crown Court heard that counsels for the prosecution and the defence were “adopting their written closing submissions” and they would be making no further oral submissions.
Reserving judgement in the case, trial judge Mr Justice Fowler said he would give his ruling on the case at a later date.
On the opening day of the non-jury Diplock-style trial, a senior prosecution KC said Love’s DNA was “all over the device” used in a “pre-planned attack” on police.
The prosecutor said that just before 11pm on Thursday, November 17, 2022 officers ‘A’ and ‘B’ were in the Mount Carmel Height area in an unmarked armoured Skoda Superb car.
The officers in the car made a radio transmission stating they had witnessed a flash and heard a bang, and that they believed they had been the subject of an attack.
The officers returned to Strabane police station with one reporting that the flash came from the direction of an old school site.
This officer also spoke of hearing a very loud bang and feeling a thud on the police vehicle which caused it to rock – and said he felt whatever hit the car peppered it and disintegrated.
When the vehicle was examined at the station, no obvious damage was noted but there was peppering of the paint surface. A burning smell was also noted coming from the front passenger side of the car.
Following the attack, prosecution counsel said the area including waste ground was searched and several items were removed for forensic examination.
Included was a cordless drill which the Crown say was a “trigger mechanism for the device” and was found lying in grass.
Love’s DNA was found on the drill and on a galvanised post, whilst the presence of the explosive RDX was also located at the scene.
The prosecution KC said this type of explosive has been used by terrorists in the past and more recently linked to “dissident Republican groups”.
Love was arrested on the Derry Road in Strabane the day after the bomb attack and over the course of four interviews, he gave a ‘no comment’ response.
He was released on November 20 but was re-arrested on December 13 when the DNA results were confirmed but again refused to answer any questions.
When the DNA results were put to him, he provided a prepared statement in which he claimed that he was approached by a male involved with Saoradh – the political wing of the New IRA – on November 17, 2022.
Love said this man asked him to do ‘a favour’ which was to take a drill in a bag to waste ground at Mount Carmel Heights.
Regarding Love’s partner Symone Murphy, the prosecutor said it was the Crown’s case that she withheld information.
He said that at the time of the bomb attack, Love’s mobile phone was left at his home address and that during this period his mother called her son which was answered by Symone Murphy.
The prosecutor said that when her phone was seized and examined, messages indicated she knew her partner Love was not at home during the relevant time and was worried where he was.
He added that when she was later spoken to by police about the explosion, Murphy didn’t answer their questions about Love’s whereabouts on the evening of November 17.
The Crown KC said it was the prosecution’s case that Symone Murphy was “undoubtedly aware that Charlie Love’s whereabouts at the time of the bomb attack would be highly relevant to the police” but provided no information.
In conclusion, he said: “We say Charlie Love was part of a pre-planned attack on police with an intention to kill.
“Charlie Love’s DNA was all over the device and by virtue of his defence statement, he admits he was in possession of the device in advance of it being used…he was clearly present in that area at the time of the attack”.”
He added the aim of the attack may have been “thwarted due to the fact the officers were in an armoured car”, that the device “appears to have exploded or impacted against a metal fence on the ground around it” and that it was “only through good fortune that deaths were averted.”
During the trial, the former state pathologist for Northern Ireland, Professor Jack Crane was called by the prosecution to give evidence.
Professor Crane confirmed that in the course of his profession he had dealt with a number of fatalities associated with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
He told the court: “The evidence would indicate that some type of Improvised Explosive Device was detonated as the armoured vehicle was passing the scene.
“In this case it seems fairly clear that this device had fragmented and had caused peppering of the nearside of the A pillar on the vehicle.
“If such fragments were capable of causing impact damage to the chassis of the vehicle they would have been capable of causing serious injury or death if they had struck an individual.”
