A 26-year-old veteran of the Afghanistan War has admitted to being behind several bomb threats that were called in last week. The vet said he sent threats to Copenhagen Central Station and several hotels, but denied that he was behind the bomb threats received by Danske Bank branches on Bornholm the same day.
"I was inspired by the bomb threats against Danske Bank on Bornholm,” the man told a judge during a preliminary hearing. “I thought that if I made a bomb threat I would get on the news.”
The man was arrested at his home in Nykøbing on Friday and was charged with having sent several bomb threats two days earlier.
Bomb threats were received by Danske Bank branches in Rønne and Nexø on Bornholm, Hotel Fredensborg and Hotel Griffen in Ronne, the Radisson Hotel in Copenhagen and Copenhagen Central Station.
"I have no quarrel with DSB, but the idea just came to me to send an email saying that the central station was going to be totally destroyed,” the man told the judge.
When the threat against the station did not immediately appear on the news, the man sent a threat to the Radisson Hotel opposite Copenhagen Central Station. When that threat again failed to make headlines, he sent threats to Hotel Fredensborg and Hotel Griffen in Rønne.
The man had previously worked at the Hotel Fredensborg, but said that he had no quarrel with the hotel.
"I was impatient,” he said. “Something should have happened.”
The soldier said that he had been stationed in Afghanistan for four months and returned home in August 2010. While in Afghanistan, he was in a vehicle with two other soldiers that drove over a roadside bomb. None of the occupants were killed in that incident, but the man said that he had lost other friends during the war.
Since returning home, he has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and has received psychological treatment, which he said he had to give up when the military stopped paying.
"Since then it has all been downhill because I miss the adrenalin rush,” he said. “I drive too fast and go bungee jumping to try and get it back.”
The prosecutor requested the 26-year-old be held for 12 days, saying that there was a risk that the man would commit similar crimes if he was released. The defence lawyer asked that his client be released. The judge is scheduled to make a decision sometime later today.
