'Break-in' Found Before Lockerbie Bombing, Witness Says

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'Break-in' Found Before Lockerbie Bombing, Witness Says

Judges in Lockerbie appeal case heard Thursday that a breach of security occurred at London's Heathrow Airport 18 hours before a bomb exploded on a Pan Am jumbo jet over Scotland in December 1988.

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Judges in Lockerbie appeal case heard Thursday that a breach of security occurred at London's Heathrow Airport 18 hours before a bomb exploded on a Pan Am jumbo jet over Scotland in December 1988.

Former security guard Ray Manly said in a sworn statement that he found a padlock on a baggage store cut. The affidavit was submitted to the court by Bill Taylor, on behalf of Abdelbasset al- Megrahi, the Libyan man convicted exactly a year ago of murdering 270 people in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Taylor asked the five appeal judges to hear Manly's evidence, which was not available to the original trial at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands.

Taylor said if it had been admitted, it would have been a " material consideration" for the court.

In his statement, Manly said he discovered the break-in at a padlocked rubber door known as CP2, at midnight on December 21, 1988. "The padlock was on the floor to the left of the doors and had been cut through in a way which suggested that bolt cutters had been used."

According to the statement, near CP2, baggage containers for several aircraft were left. It was often the case that loose baggage would be left in that area. Such baggage would be tagged for loading into the flights. "I am also able to say that in the check-in area, Pan Am baggage labels of various types were left unsecured at the check-in desk," Manly said.

"I believe it would be possible for an unauthorized person to obtain tags for a particular Pan Am flight and then, having broken the CP2 lock, to have introduced a tagged bag into the baggage build up area."

The prosecution case, which the three trial judges accepted, was that the bomb had been loaded onto a flight from Malta to Frankfurt, where it was transferred to a feeder flight for Pan Am 103.

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