Ipswich bomb victim wants to face accused man

A bomb-squad officer carries an esky from a house where a man received horrific injuries on Thursday. Photo: Sarah Harvey/The Queensland Times

An Ipswich teenager who lost most of his fingers when a home-made bomb exploded in his hands wants to ask the man accused of making it one question: ‘‘Why?’’
 
The boy lost all but his little finger on his left hand and two fingers on his right hand after the golf-ball bomb he was grasping exploded in May.
 
Three other boys had found the device in the street and handed it to him.
 

The Police Bomb Squad detonated several more explosives yesterday at a house in West Ipswich. Photo: David Nielsen/Queensland Times

Glen James Dell, 43, has been charged over the incident and faces a raft of other explosives and drug offences following an accidental explosion at his West Ipswich home last Thursday.

Some of charges also involve a booby-trapped bomb workers found in a construction site across the road from the house.
 
Mr Dell’s housemate Mark Tier, 37, remains in a critical condition in intensive care with severe hand and groin injuries.

A police bomb squad officer places explosive material in the yard of a Clay St home, which was then detonated remotely. Photo: David Nielsen/Queensland Times

He’s also expected to face charges when he comes out of an induced coma.
 
The boy’s mother plans to bring her son to the next court mention for Mr Dell on August 16.
 
‘‘He wants to look this man in the eye and basically ask him ‘why?’’’ she told AAP.
 
‘‘Why did he leave this bomb on the street for anyone to find?
 
‘‘It’s changed the lives of so many people and so many families and it’s ruined everything because of this selfish adult.’’
The boy, who had one finger reattached after it was located at the scene, now faces years of rehabilitation and will be fitted with prosthetics.
 
Police finished a six-day search of the home on Wednesday morning, finding about two kilograms of explosive material riddled throughout the house.