A MAN accused of sending a parcel bomb to his estranged stepmother has walked free from court after being cleared of creating the IED.

Sandra Jefferies opened an explosive device which went off in her home in Othello Close, Colchester, just days before Christmas in 2016.

Her estranged stepson Wayne Jefferies, 55, was arrested in the hours after the bomb went off and was later charged with causing an explosion.

But following a two week trial a jury of eight men and four women found him not guilty after deliberating for nine hours and 47 minutes.

The bomb had been placed on the doorstep of the house in Othello Close, and detonated when Mrs Jefferies opened it.

A neighbour heard the bang of the explosion and rushed round to help her.

Between them they managed to beat out the flames with a mop and Mrs Jefferies managed to escape with just singeing to her hair.

Anti-terror police and Ministry of Defence experts came to the house in the hours after the explosion as the investigation as to what had happened was launched.

The bomb was described as unsophisticated by an explosive experts and was made up of batteries, a circuit, matches and powder similar to one found in fireworks.

It ignited when the box was opened using clothes pegs as a trigger and metal shrapnel was loaded inside.

During the trial, Stephen Rose defending said the prosecution had no concrete evidence linking Jefferies to the bomb and all of the factors were circumstantial.

He suggested anonymous phone calls which had been made to the house in the weeks and months leading up to the explosion could have had something to do with it, and suggested it was more than coincidence the bomb was delivered when Victor Jefferies was away working – something Wayne Jefferies would have had no knowledge of.

Essex Police have no further suspects for the bombing and nobody else has been charged.