A request for day parole by a man known as the Prince Edward Island Bomber has been rejected.

Roger Charles Bell, 58, is serving a nine-year sentence at the Springhill Institution in Nova Scotia. He was convicted in 1997 of setting four bombs on the Island and in Halifax over a period of eight years.

Those five years behind bars have done nothing to make Bell less dangerous to society, the National Parole Board decided Friday. Psychological counselling at the medium security Springhill penitentiary had been of no benefit.

"They simply couldn't identify any change that had occurred," said Brian Chase, a parole board spokesman.

In 1995, Bell planted a bomb outside the legislature in Charlottetown. That blast injured one person.

He also put explosives at a Charlottetown propane station 1996, and in 1994 left a bomb in Halifax's Point Pleasant Park. The string of bombings started in 1988, when Bell set off a bomb outside the Charlottetown courthouse.

Bell taunted police with letters he signed "Loki 7," a name he says he got from Norse mythology, but never said why he did it.

When he was caught in 1997, he pleaded guilty, and kept quiet about his motives until Friday's parole board appearance.

Appearing frail and gaunt, Bell said, "I think my mission was simply revenge at society."

A bitter divorce and problems at work left him feeling mistreated by society and angry with government, the courts, and big business, he said.

Having withdrawn from society, his isolation fuelled his anger. Even after an innocent bystander was injured by the legislature blast, Bell said he couldn't stop. It had become a game he didn't know how to end.

Besides, he enjoyed the attention, and the power to make people afraid.

Despite the rejection of his application, Bell will be released in June 2003, when he has served two-thirds of his sentence.