A dissident Republican from Northern Ireland, who wanted revenge against Loyalists after being badly beaten up as a teenager, infiltrated the Royal Marines in order to smuggle out arms, it can be revealed.

Ciaran Maxwell, 31, a Catholic from the largely Protestant Larne area of Ulster, began hoarding explosives and other bomb making equipment in preparation for a terror attack, after joining the elite commando unit in 2011.

He stashed the equipment in a number of purpose built hides in Northern Ireland and near his Royal Marine base in Devon.

But he was caught when police uncovered one of the stashes in a country park near Larne and found traces of Maxwell's DNA on some of the weapons.