A 19-year-old male, who is an aerospace engineering student in a local polytechnic, learned how to make bombs online during the circuit breaker 2 years ago.
He then made two improvised pipe bombs and lit them up at East Coast Park sometime in 2020, detonating one of them.
He pleaded guilty on 19 May to 4 charges of making explosives without a license, committing a rash act with a dangerous substance likely to cause hurt or injury to others, and abetting such an act.
Three more charges will be considered for his sentencing, which has been scheduled for next month.
The identity of the youth cannot be revealed as he is being protected by the Children and Young Persons Act, because he was under 18 at the time of the offence.
Nobody was hurt in the detonation of the improvised pipe bombs
He was interested in explosives in April 2019 when he brought improvised sparkler bombs that he made to the beach at East Coast Park with a friend.
He then asked his friend to light one up and threw it into the sea, and it caused a series of flashes and an explosion upon detonation.
The youth filmed the incident and posted it onto his TikTok account.
Sometime between May and June 2020, he wanted to make improvised pipe bombs and bought 200 boxes of matchsticks for hit.
He then went to a skate park at East Coast Park with another friend on 7 June 2020, to try to set the bombs off.
He brought along two of the pipe bombs that he made and a few sparkler bombs, and he then lit up the sparkler bombs but they didn’t explode.
He then picked up one of them then threw it towards a grass patch, causing it to explode upon contacting the ground.
He then placed two of the pipe bombs on the same grass patch and lit them up, before running away, and one of the pipe bombs then detonated and caused a loud explosion.
He filmed the explosion and posted it on his Instagram.
The other pipe bomb that didn’t detonate was taken back to his home, where he later threw it away in the rubbish chute.
The police were alerted of these incidents on 19 June 2020 through an online police report and his home was then raided at 1am the next day.
The police seized several materials that he used to make the improvised pipe bombs.