Brian Andrew Rymer being escorted to the Courthouse. (File photo)
PHILIPSBURG--Brian Andrew Rymer was sentenced on Wednesday to twelve months unconditional for making two false bomb threats at Princess Juliana International Airport SXM on November 22, 2015.
The threats were made through telephone calls to the Airport’s security department and 911 at approximately 12:22pm and 3:59pm. All operations and traffic at and around the Airport had to be shut down between 12:30 and 6:00pm.
The Prosecutor’s Office recommended that the court award damages to the police for personnel cost of NAf. 1,034, and NAf. 500 to the Fire Department. The organiser of the “SXM or Bust” party at Pink Iguana bar and restaurant should be compensated with payment of US $582. The judge said these claims were inadmissible and Rymer was acquitted of the charge.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, these were the fifth and sixth bomb scares at the Airport last year. That day, the Police received calls from a man with a British-Indian accent indicating a bomb would be detonated before the departure of the Air France flight. The bomb would have been in a car that was parked in the Airport’s parking lot. Police took necessary precautions and no bombs were found.
The calls were made from a British telephone number, which led the police to Rymer. The suspect, who was born in Trinidad and is residing in London, was in St. Maarten as a competitor in the SXM Aviation Photo Contest TOPPIX 2015. He was arrested on December 25, 2015.
Rymer, a database developer, also had been convicted of fraud. He posed as a pastor in 2006 and 2007 and reportedly defrauded churchgoers of US $126,000 in total.
Bomb suspect gets one year in prison
