W2C-007 Belfast Telegraph 6-1.txt
Bomb woman is jailed. Rosie Cowan

Murder mission: 'Mata Hari-type' actress sentenced to twenty years

Terrorist Rosena Brown smiled and waved to family and friends amid shouts of republican slogans as she was jailed for twenty years at Belfast Crown Court today for her part in a murder mission.

The court heard the double life of the actress and mother of seven from Bunbeg Park in west Belfast, came to an end when she was caught red-handed driving a car with a bomb in it outside Larne on April eighteenth last year.

Brown was named in court in nineteen ninety as the Mata Hari-type IRA spy who seduced prison officer John Hanna into setting up colleague Brian Armour to be murdered.

Conspiracy

An RUC Special Branch officer told Hanna's trial that police considered recruiting as a double agent Brown, who starred in a NIO 'Crack Crime' advert.

Today, co-accused Paul McCullough (thirty) of Glenalina Road, and twenty-one-year-old Stephen Canning, of Doon Road, who were in the car with Brown, also received twenty-year sentences.

All three were found guilty of conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to cause an explosion and having a bomb with intent.

Sentencing the trio to twenty years'concurrent on each count, Lord Justice MacDermott said the under-car booby-trap device found in the glove compartment of the car was a "murderous weapon" and that they were guilty of "one of the gravest crimes".

Plagued

The judge told the attractive blonde actress, who starred alongside pop singer Sinead O'Connor in the film Hush-A-Bye-Baby, that she would be an old woman before she was free.
"At your age you should gave known better than to get involved in terrorism", he said. "For more than twenty years this province has been plagued by terrorism.
The sensitivity of everyone has been dulled by repetition but it doesn't mean the activities of terrorists will be tolerated. All right-thinking people abhor such activity".

Wig

Earlier, the court had heard how Brown pulled a white hat from her head, dislodging a ginger wig, when the car she was driving was stopped by police, on the Upper Cairncastle Road, outside Larne.

Apart from giving their names and addresses, the trio refused to answer the police's questions.

When the mercury tilt switch device was discovered in the glove compartment, Canning told the RUC: "It's all right, you 're safe, it's not primed".

The judge said the trio were obviously on their way to murder someone.

He said they did not try to mitigate their actions by naming their intended target which would have shown "remorse and regret".

Brown, immaculate in a pale green suit and white blouse, sat bolt upright during the short hearing, smiling frequently.

As she was led away she waved and shouted "God bless" to family and friends.

McCullough gave a clenched fist salute and shouted a republican slogan, which was returned by several people in the public gallery.

The defence counsel said Brown's seven children were aged from thirteen to twenty-five at the time of her arrest and she had a promising career on stage and screen ahead of her.

"Her life has been changed irrevocably", said the barrister. "She will spend many years in prison and when she is released she will have to remake her life as best she can".
