A MAN brought terror to the streets of Bolton with a chilling car bomb attack, a court was told.

Stanley Curry targeted his victim as part of a bitter terrorist feud, a jury heard.

The prosecution allege that he planted the bomb under the car of John Thompson, a friend of terrorist leader Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair, as retribution for a paramilitary murder in Northern Ireland 10 months earlier.

The detonator went off as Mr Thompson drove away from his home and over a speed hump in Windsor Grove, Halliwell, in December 2003, but the bomb failed to explode.

The incident sparked a security alert which saw dozens of homes evacuated.

Curry, aged 47, of Bilton Grange Road, Yardley, Birmingham, denies at Preston Crown Court one charge of conspiracy with a person or persons unknown to cause an explosion.

Philip Shears, prosecuting, said Thompson would have faced serious injury or, more likely, death if the bomb had detonated.

The trial started on Wednesday amid high security with armed police at the court

The jury was told the attack was the culmination of tit-for-tat reprisals by feuding factions of loyalist UDA groups in Northern Ireland.

Thompson - a former UDA lieutenant nicknamed Fat Jackie by his comrades - was among about 30 people connected to former UDA brigadier Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair who were forced to flee Belfast in February 2003 after the shooting of rival paramilitary John "Grug" Gregg.

Adair had been commander of the West Belfast C' Company of the Ulster Freedom Fighters which had broken ranks with the rest of the UFF.

His supporters, including Adair's wife Gina, settled in Bolton but the mainstream UDA maintained the feud. The court heard that shots were fired at Adair's wife's house in Horwich.

Mr Shears told the court that Curry, a train driver, travelled to Bolton a month before the attack was carried out to stake out Thompson's house and trace his movements.

He then returned with the homemade bomb, which comprised plastic explosives packed into a plastic container and a motion-trigger fuse, said Mr Shears.

The bomb was attached to the underside of Thompson's red Ford Escort while he and his family slept on the night of December 16, 2003.

As Mr Thompson crossed over a speed hump as he drove to work at 7am the next day, he heard a loud bang and stopped the car.

Although the detonator had been triggered, the bomb did not explode.

Mr Shears said: "It was extremely fortunate for Mr Thompson, and others who may have been passing at the time, that the small detonating charge exploded but failed to provide a sufficient explosive charge to detonate the main explosive charge."

He added: "It was only the failure of the detonator that enabled Mr Thompson to escape serious injuries or, more likely, death."

It was alleged that Curry had been captured on a CCTV camera driving a rented a van near Mr Thompson's home hours before the bomb was attached to the car.

Mr Shears said evidence would be produced in court which showed that DNA profiles found on the bomb could belong to only one in 450,000 people, including Curry.

He told the court that Curry was recruited for the attack because he was a loyalist supporter, but would raise no suspicion because he was already based on the mainland.

The court was shown photographs of Curry posing beneath UDA banners on one of several trips to Northern Ireland during which, he told police, he became friends with Gregg.

He also had a tattoo bearing Gregg's name on his back in memory of the dead man, said Mr Shears.

A white van hired near Curry's Birmingham home was seen in Chorley New Road, Halliwell, between 10pm and 11pm on the night before the bomb was discovered.

The court was also told how Curry had visited Bolton in November, spending two nights at The Melrose Hotel in Chorley New Road.

After Curry was arrested at his sister's house in Moreton, on the Wirral, in January 2004, he told police he had been to Bolton to buy tickets for a football match which he later planned to sell.

He also told police in interviews that he was a supporter of the UDA and planned to move to Northern Ireland after spending Christmas with his sister because people there were "my sort of people".

Mr Shears also said Curry told police he blamed "Adair's lot", meaning the West Belfast C Company, for killing Gregg.

Gregg and Robert Carson were killed when the car they were travelling in was raked with automatic gun fire in February 2003 at the height of a feud within the UDA which had seen Adair fall out with the group's ruling members.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.

Proceeding