As a key cog in the legal machine, magistrates are used to hearing half-truths and conspiracy theories from guilty defendants who refuse to own up.

But now one of their number is rubbing shoulders with the people he was employed to protect society from, after a jury rejected his own far-fetched story.

Jonathan Wilkes, whose complicated private life was highlighted during the trial, constantly changed his story after the cache of bombs was found near his home.

But, while trying to convince officers of his innocence, Wilkes only managed to dig himself further into trouble.

Wilkes dismissed claims that he intended to use the bombs to kill or maim, saying he was horrified by the damage they could cause as he had been present during two London bombings.

He said that a friend was seriously injured during the Baltic Exchange Bombing and a seat that Wilkes had been sitting on at the building 15-minutes before was pierced by a 2ft long shard of glass. He also said that he he was knocked off his feet during the London Wall bombing.

When detectives persisted, Wilkes came up with an alibi that centred on a mystery blackmailer who, at the end of February 2000, he said threatened to expose his affair with Collette Cooper.

The magistrate, who had a long-term partner, Annie Henriot, and a son, said his blackmailer asked for £50 a week but this rose to £100. Wilkes then said that he produced four shopping lists containing details of components used to make the bombs and businesses where they could be obtained.

The blackmailer, the defendant insisted, picked-up his bounty from outside Wilkes' house at different times of the night and day and his attempts to identify him with a night-sight failed.

But police never believed the 40-year-old, saying he made up excuses as more evidence was produced.

In the witness box, Wilkes insisted that the cash bribes were real but admitted that the lists had never existed. He then told the jury the latest version of his alibi, claiming that he had in fact intended to cause harm with the bombs he had built -- but only to himself.

Wilkes also said he had researched ways of killing himself on the Internet to try to find a method which would not look like suicide, which ruled out methods such as shooting himself.

The defendant said he deliberately left the bomb in Syreford so it would be discovered and connected it to a flat battery, so it could not explode.

"I wanted to give the impression over a period of time of someone building these devices, testing them and setting them off for an unknown purpose, so when the one I would use on myself went off it would be part of a pattern."

He said he intended to kill himself using a bomb that would trigger when moved. Three of the devices were set up in this way. He said he had not intended these devices to be found.

Wilkes admitted he had lied to police, to Annie Henriot and to his former mistress Collette Cooper, but insisted he knew the difference between fact and fiction.