A St Dogmaels man, who denies orchestrating a bomb hoax that shut down a village last Sunday, has been sent to prison awaiting a crown court hearing.

Lee Moody, 58, is accused of sending a fake parcel bomb to an address in the coastal village of Flushing, Cornwall.

He entered a not guilty plea at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court yesterday, January 11.

The court heard that the fake bomb was so realistic that the authorities did not know that it was a hoax until they tried to detonate it.

By that time shipping had been disrupted, residents had been evacuated and businesses had had to close.

The court head that a Flushing resident had contacted police, just after midnight on January 8, to say that he had received a parcel addressed to him which looked like a parcel bomb which had either failed to detonate or was fake.

Reports from the scene said that police and the bomb disposal squad were called to Flushing in the early hours of Sunday.

The Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team was contacted to investigate and a command centre was set up by the police at Tregew Barn above the village.

Residents were evacuated as a precaution and were supported as they awaited EOD assessment.

A 100m cordon was put in place and the roads surrounding the area were also closed.

The court heard that the parcel was forensically examined. In it there was text that said ‘make your peace with God. I am coming for you’ as well as a drawing of a stick man with an axe to its heart, a knife to its neck and a house on fire.

Moody was charged with dispatching by means of post an article, namely a homemade mocked explosive device with the intention of inducing in another a belief that the said article was likely to explode or ignite and thereby cause personal injury or damage to property.

The parcel is alleged to have been posted from Guilford in Surrey on December 21.

He entered a not guilty plea and Magistrates at Haverfordwest declined jurisdiction, deciding that the case would be better dealt with at crown court.

They remanded Moody into custody until February 10, when the case will be first listed at Swansea Crown Court.