Yellowknife (Apr 21/04) - Flanked by security officers who never left his side, Roger Warren admitted publicly for the first time to setting a home-made bomb that killed nine strike breakers at Giant Mine, Sept. 18, 1992.

"I screwed up big time," Warren testified Monday in the $14 million civil trial launched by the Workers' Compensation Board and families of the murdered miners.

The plaintiffs say a host of defendants -- including the territorial government, a private security firm and Giant's former owners -- were negligent in allowing Warren to sneak into the mine and plant the bomb nearly 750 feet below the surface.

Currently serving a life sentence for second degree murder, Warren was brought to Yellowknife from a Manitoba prison to testify.

First visit in nearly a decade

It was Warren's first visit to Yellowknife in nearly a decade, but only a half dozen spectators were on hand to hear his testimony.

Security was tight: Four sheriffs and three RCMP officers dressed in dark suits with headsets who kept a close watch.

The beeping of hand-held metal detectors punctuated Warren's testimony as guards scanned everyone who entered the specially-built courtroom on the fifth floor of the YK Centre.

Dressed in jeans and a plain white shirt, Warren calmly discussed planting the fatal bomb, the aftermath of the explosion, his confession to police nearly a year later, and his subsequent decade-long denial of responsibility.

The emotion that characterized Warren's confession to lawyers during a videotaped, pretrial hearing last January was missing.

During a session recorded at Stoney Mountain Prison where he is serving his sentence, Warren tearfully admitted to setting the fatal trap and said that he knew people would be killed in the blast.

On Monday, a methodical, unemotional Warren backed away from that assertion.

"I figured (the bomb) would knock a car off the track," he said.

"I didn't even consider (the people)."

He said the only reason he set the bomb which tore apart the man car carrying the miners was to force management and the union back to the bargaining table.

"If you could get the place to shut down, you might be able to get (the parties) to resume bargaining," he reasoned.

Warren said he didn't have any trouble sneaking into the mine and planting the explosives about 750 feet underground in the early morning hours of Sept. 18, 1992.

After climbing out of the mine, an effort that Warren said nearly gave him a "heart attack," he returned to the picket line near one of entrances to Giant.

Warren said he considered placing an anonymous call to police to warn them about the explosive, but decided against it.

"I wasn't thinking (clearly)," he said of the hours after he planted the bomb.

Warren was at the Polar Bowl at around 9 a.m. when he heard over the radio that there had been an explosion at Giant.

"I was in a daze," Warren testified. "There was a lot of screaming and yelling going on inside of me."

Warren said he was surprised that it took nearly five hours for the bomb to detonate.

When word filtered out that men had been killed in the explosion, Warren said the mood among some miners was unsympathetic.

"One miner from Con told me.... 'If they weren't there, they wouldn't be dead,'" he testified.

In the days after the blast, Warren said he considered "spilling his guts" to police, but decided against it when he heard Royal Oak officials were planning to re-open the mine a few days later.

"I was frustrated," said Warren.

Almost 13 months passed before Warren finally confessed to police.

Seriously depressed

"(I had gone from) a mildly depressed guy to a seriously depressed guy," he testified.

Warren said he finally decided to confess when he heard police were close to arresting two other union members in connection with the bombing.

"I couldn't stand it any more. It was eating my guts out," said Warren, who described his ethical dilemma as "Faustian."

Warren confessed to police on the afternoon of Oct. 15 and took investigators on a videotaped tour of the mine, outlining step by step how he got into the mine and rigged the explosive.

Warren recanted the confession during his murder trial in 1995, and steadfastly denied his involvement in the bombing for more than a decade.

"I lied," he said.

Before the criminal case went to trial, Warren said Crown attorneys proposed a plea bargain, but he refused to plead guilty to manslaughter.

"(That was) total stupidity," he said of his decision to turn down the plea bargain.

He was convicted on nine counts of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, without parole for 20 years.

Warren's case was championed by the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, a group of lawyers who were successful in overturning the convictions Guy Paul Morin and David Milgaard among others.

"I dunno what they seen," said Warren of the lawyers. "They were really gung ho."

Warren said he felt guilty about lying to AIDWC lawyers and was embarrassed that several of his friends and family members were raising money for an appeal. "I wasn't too proud of that," he said.

Tearfully admitted guilt

Finally, while being interviewed by lawyers for the Workers Compensation Board in preparation for the civil suit in January 2003, Warren tearfully admitted his guilt. After the hearing he also broke the news to his wife, daughters and friends.

"I just couldn't stand people thinking I was a piece of slime who was responsible for nine deaths," he said of his decade-long denials.

"(But) I don't know. I'm not all that big on introspection," he said.

Interestingly, Warren said he doesn't harbour much animosity for Royal Oak or its former management officials, but he said the decision to hire replacement workers angered him at the time.

"The temperature went from 50 degrees to 90 degrees over night," he said.

Much of Warren's testimony also focused on how he got access to the mine during the bitter labour dispute. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say Royal Oak Enterprises -- Giant's owner in 1992 -- did little to keep striking miners from continually sneaking into the mine, something Warren agreed with wholeheartedly.

"Anybody could walk in. There was absolutely no obstacle to me getting in there," he said.

Warren is expected to be on the witness stand for the remainder of the week.

-- with files from Daniel

T'seleie