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Scottish vodka `terrorist' goes on trial in Manchester

A British man went on trial on Monday accused of sending miniature bottles of vodka contaminated with caustic soda to public figures as part of a campaign hatched by pro-independence Scottish "terrorists."

Wayne Cook, 45, also threatened to kill English people "with no hesitation or compunction" by poisoning the country's water supply, Manchester Crown Court in northwest England was told.

The unemployed father of three, who was arrested in May last year, denies two charges under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 of using "noxious substances or things to cause harm and intimidate."

Prosecutor Paul Taylor told the jury there was enough caustic soda in the bottles to kill if the recipients had drunk the substance.

A package sent to a municipal councilor in northwest England was intercepted by suspicious postal workers, but another to a Scottish journalist got through, he said.

A letter accompanying the package -- signed SNLA (Scottish National Liberation Army) -- explained that "we want to demonstrate our intent to kill English people at random and with no discrimination or compunction."

"This is necessary to convince the British government that we will lethally poison England's water supplies, if they do not withdraw totally from Scotland," it said.

The SNLA "are a terrorist organization. You can gauge their agenda from the letter -- total withdrawal from Scotland by the British government," Taylor said.

"The objective was to be achieved not by democratic means but by threats of mass murder. That's what terrorism is all about," Taylor said.

The court heard that another man who lived at the same block of flats as Cook in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, pleaded guilty to the same charges at an earlier hearing.

Prosecutors allege the pair hatched the plot together.
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