A HAMPSHIRE teenager claims he was walking home with a bag of beers at the time he is accused of blowing up a car with a home-made bomb, a court heard.

Robert White, 19, is alleged to have used an improvised explosive devise (IED), fashioned out of a piece of scaffolding pipe, on a Vauxhall Vectra belonging to the people who lived next door to his uncle and aunt.

The explosive device has been compared to those used in Afghanistan and Iraq and is said to have blasted shrapnel more than 30 metres.

White, of Truro Rise, denies the charges and says on April 10 this year he had gone for a few drinks in the Litten Tree, Eastleigh, with a friend.

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He said he was later in his car but they parted company when his friend said he was going to Southampton.

White said he insisted the driver pull over to let him out and that he accidentally left his mobile phone in the car.

In the dock he claimed to have arrived home at 2.30am, the time when he has been accused of planting the bomb.

Barrister Matthew Jewel, representing the teenager, opened the defence at Southampton Crown Court.

He questioned White about his movements and phone calls on April 9 and 10.

Prosecutor Stephen Parish had previously told the court that White’s uncle and aunt John and Jacqueline Hallett had fallen out with neighbours Yvonne West and Sean Konczak in Chadwick Road, Bishopstoke.

He said the teenager had admitted carrying out the attack to friends and said it was because of this ongoing row about a fence panel that had blown over.

He added White’s relatives had nothing to do with the incident.

White denies a charge of causing an explosion likely to endanger life.

Proceeding