MAGISTRATES have ruled that an autistic man accused of a bomb hoax during the Olympics should stand trial despite questions around the evidence linking him to the call.
A hoax caller phoned the police and said there was an explosive device in the Olympic Park in Stratford on August 3 last year.
Colin Macguire,52, who has Asperger syndrome and lives in a care home in Grange Road, Thorton Heath, has been charged with making a false report. He has yet to enter a plea.
A special preliminary hearing was held today (Friday) at Croydon Magistrates' Court to decide whether the case should go to trial.
Gulcan Olurcan, defending, argued that the charge should be discontinued because an officer in the case had noted the need for expert voice recognition but no such analysis of the telephone call had been undertaken.
Miss Olurcan also questioned the evidence linking Macguire, accompanied to court by his support worker, to the number used during the incident.
"As it stands this is not a case that can go to the crown court and be heard before a jury," she added.
Doug Hunter, chairman of the bench, ruled the case should proceed to trial at Croydon Crown Court on May 17.
He said: "We allow it to go forward to trial because that is the right and proper place for the evidence to be tested."
Macguire is also charged with making persistent nuisance communications between June 22 and October 23 last year.
