Fife OAP went online to post instructions on creating a huge gas blast in London

A pensioner who posted detailed instructions on how to blow up the centre of London using the city’s gas mains has been admonished after staying out of trouble for a year.

Gas blast instructions: James Kessler

James Kessler, 69, wrote out a disturbing message on how to create an explosion and published it on his personal Facebook page.

The online post listed instructions on how to use a city’s gas mains to launch a terror attack and included the words “Here’s how to blow up downtown London - nice and easy”.

His Facebook post was spotted by a gas industry expert who said the terror instructions were “completely feasible” and if carried out could “lead to the death of thousands of people”.

Kessler, from Dunfermline admitted the offence when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in February last year and sentence had been deferred for him to be of good behaviour.

Sheriff Alistair Noble was told the OAP, who did not attend the hearing, had stayed out of trouble since appearing in court and he was admonished.

Previously the sheriff was told Kessler was a first offender and social work reports deemed he was “a low risk” of reoffending.

Sheriff Noble said the instructions were “a viable way to cause significant damage” but acknowledged Kessler had “not actively encouraged anyone to follow the method”.

Last year the court heard an industry expert at Air Liquide UK, who supply bulk gases and liquid oxygen, spotted Kessler’s menacing online public post in September 2017.

Fiscal Alan Morrison said the employee, only referred to as Mr Hopper, read the post which stated “Here’s how to blow up downtown London - nice and easy”.

The Facebook message also included a link to the Air Liquide UK website and described “how an attack carried out in central London, or any major city, would have a mains gas system”.

The post described using a tanker and instructions as how “an attack could be coordinated across the central gas main system”.

Kessler had written “in exact detail” how to mix the liquid oxygen for such an attack to be carried out.

He added the online message also contained the words “big bang” and “take out the centre of the beast in one flash”.

Mr Hopper, who has worked in the gas industry for 40 years, said anyone carrying out Kessler’s bomb instructions could “potentially lead to the death of thousands of people”.

Mr Morrison said: “He was so concerned he contacted the police about the matter and also took preventative measures to increase the security of his company’s drivers.”

Police Scotland officers arrested Kessler in December 2017 and he “admitted posting the content on Facebook”.

Kessler added he was only warning the gas supply company that such an attack was possible and for them to take precautionary safety measures.

He told officers he found it “ludicrous that it has got to these lengths” and that he regarded the online post as just “humour” on his part.

Kessler admitted conducting himself in a disorderly manner by creating a public post on social media which described how to create an explosion in London and other cities and did commit a breach of the peace at his home in Dunfermline between October 2, 2016 and December 12, 2017.

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