In a case that triggered extensive investigations by Canadian law enforcement, nuclear regulators and Ontario Power Generation, a judge has sentenced a 23-year-old man to more than a year in jail for fabricating a terrorist plot against the Pickering nuclear plant.
In what investigators believe was an effort to impress OPG in the hopes of being hired, Lloyd Charest three years ago claimed to have uncovered plant blueprints and terrorists' intentions to attack Pickering embedded in an image of the Koran he'd acquired online. Charest was living with a Pickering security employee who alerted OPG. The utility, in turn, notified police agencies that ultimately concluded Charest created the image himself after seizing his computer. Canadian law enforcement at the time was particularly sensitive to threats from terrorism following the recent arrest of 18 Islamic militants planning bomb attacks in nearby Toronto.
On Tuesday, Canada's National Post newspaper reported that a judge issued Charest a 16-month jail sentence, plus two years of probation. The court also forbid him from disseminating any architectural drawings of the plant he might possess. In his sentencing, the judge made a point to note the high cost of the investigation and warned that people who conduct similar hoaxes should expect more than a "slap on the wrist."