The Right Wing Bomber(s) revisited

Two men will appear in Burnley Magistrates Court tomorrow morning on charges under the Explosives Substances Act 1883 . Both members of the BNP, one stood in May for Vivary Bridge ward of Colne.

Chemicals (said to be of 22 types and largest domestic haul ever) a rocket launcher and an MOD Bio warfare suit were found in their terraced houses in Colne and Nelson. There has been zero reporting in the national press of their arrest although it has been covered locally. Nelson News Burnley News


This has echoes of the London Nail Bomber of 1999

The London Nail Bomber , David Copeland, struck three times in Brixton on April 17, Brick Lane on April 24 and on the 30th April in the Admiral Duncan pub in Old Compton Street, a gay bar in Soho in which 3 people died. In total 100 people received severe injuries.(BBC Online has good archive)

After the first two bombs, anonymous phone calls were made by someone claiming to be responsible and claiming to represent Combat 18 a Fascist right wing racist gang of thugs. After the third bomb a work mate of the bomber Paul Mifsud identified him from the CCTV pictures and told the police.

Living in Farnborough it became known that the bomber, David Copeland had joined the BNP in 1997 when he was photographed standing next to the party's founder John Tyndall.

While in the BNP David Copeland admitted he found information on the internet on how to make bombs from fireworks. He also read racist and anti-Semitic literature from extreme right wing Christian groups in America.

At the end of 1998 he joined the National Socialist Movement (connected with Colin Jordan originally and now the BPP see website) and became, a few weeks before the bombing it's regional unit's leader.

His flat in a quiet suburban street had walls decorated with swastika flags and photos of atrocities and bombings from around the world, including some from his own bombings at Brixton and Brick Lane, what he later called his "handiwork".

There were also explosives and weaponry, a crossbow , hunting knives and a gas-powered pistol.

Interviewed by the Police he said, ""My main intent was to spread fear, resentment and hatred throughout this country, it was to cause a racial war," he wrote to BBC correspondent Graeme McLagan denying he was schizophrenic. He claimed that what he called "Zog", the Zionist Occupation Government, was trying to sweep him under the carpet by pumping him full of drugs.

At the end of a remarkably speedy trial which lasted 3 weeks on 30th June 2000 Copeland was sentenced to six life sentences for three murders. The Judge said: "Nothing can excuse or justify the evil you have done... The public must be protected from you and assured that if you are ever released it will not be for a very long time."