Updated

A judge has sentenced a former Royal Marine to 18 years in prison for a series of terrorism-related offenses.

Thirty-one-year-old Ciaran Maxwell lived a double life as a member of the military and as a bombmaker for dissident Irish republicans. He pleaded guilty to preparation of terrorist acts between January 2011 and August 2016, possessing images of bank cards for fraud and possessing marijuana.

He stashed anti-personnel mines, mortars and 14 pipe bombs in 43 purpose-built hideouts in Northern Ireland and England.

Detective Chief Inspector Gillian Kearney of the Northern Ireland police says Maxwell's infiltration of the military was "the first case of its kind in recent years."

Judge Nigel Sweeney said he was sure Maxwell was and would remain "motivated by dissident republican sympathies and a hostility to the U.K."