A shocked family today spoke of their disbelief after an uncle who tried to blow up his niece was jailed for just eight years.

Martin Diggines had faced life imprisonment for sending a bomb packed with 107 four-inch nails, clothes pegs and firework gunpowder to his niece Kelly Diggines.

Kelly, 19, and her son, Tommy, now 14 months old, of Delhi Road, Pitsea, escaped death by seconds after she began unwrapping the parcel.

She forced her brother, Steve, from the lounge and tore upstairs to safety as the bomb exploded, blowing out the windows of her home and causing extensive damage.

Kelly today said: "I can't believe he only got eight years - he'll be out in four. What was the point in putting him away if he only got that? It's not nearly long enough - it should have been life."

Her father Keith, 43, said of his brother: "Whatever way you look at it, it is attempted murder of two of my kids and my grandson.

"It's farcical. The police have done such a good job with this case and then for the judge to just give him that... I just can't believe it."

His voice choking with emotion, he added: "It is almost a licence to go and make bombs."

London's Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court heard how Diggines, 38, of Cunningham Rise, North Weald, sent Kelly the bomb in March in a desperate bid to stop her giving evidence against him in another court case.

He had approached one of her friends last year and asked her to give a false statement saying his niece was a liar.

But the girl later withdrew it and Diggines told her: "I will kill Kelly and her family. I'm going to blow her house up."

It was only by "sheer luck" Kelly realised the parcel was a bomb as she unwrapped it. At one stage her laughing son had even sat on it as he tried to help.

Diggines stood with his head bowed as he was sentenced for causing an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury and attempting to pervert the course of justice. He changed his plea to guilty on the day his trial was due to begin last month.

Judge Fabyan Evans told him: "If anybody had been in range when that bomb exploded in a room of that size, I have no doubt they would have been very seriously injured if not killed.

"It was only by good fortune the victim peered inside and realised something was seriously wrong. The effect on the victim has been devastating."

The judge accepted that while Diggines, a landlord, continued to remain a substantial danger to his family he did not pose a threat to the public at large.

Charles Bott, defending, had told the court Diggines was not mentally ill but had a mild anti-social personality disorder.

Keith said: "The only time I want to see my brother again is to shoot him. Quite honestly I would like to put a price on his head."

Bomb victims - Kelly and her son, Tommy

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.