1999 London nail bombings
1999 London bombings | |
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bombings, murder | |
Weapons | Nail bomb |
Deaths | 4 (including an unborn baby) |
Injured | 140 |
Victims |
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Motive | Neo-Nazism / Attempt to start a race war in England |
Part of a series on |
Terrorism |
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Part of a series on |
Neo-fascism |
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Politics portal |
The 1999 London nail bombings were a series of bomb
On 2 May 1999, the
Overview
Brixton Market bomb
The first bombing, on Saturday, 17 April 1999, was in Electric Avenue, Brixton, an area of south London with a large black population. The bomb was made using explosives from fireworks, taped inside a sports bag, primed and left at Brixton Market. The Brixton Market traders became suspicious, and one of them, Gary Shilling, moved the bag to a less crowded area after seeing perpetrator Copeland acting suspiciously. Two further moves of the bomb occurred by unconvinced traders, including the bomb being removed from the bag, which is when it ended up next to the Iceland supermarket. Concerned traders called the police, who arrived at the scene just as the bomb detonated at 5:25 pm. Forty-eight people were injured, many of them seriously because of the 4-inch (100 mm) nails that were packed around the bomb. The explosion was strong, sending nails in all directions, blowing windows and blasting a parked car across the street.[2]
Brick Lane bomb
The second bomb, on the following Saturday, 24 April, was aimed at
Admiral Duncan bomb
The third and final bomb was planted and detonated on the evening of Friday, 30 April at
Victims
Casualties (deaths) | |
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Brixton | 48 (0) |
Brick Lane | 13 (0) |
Soho | 79 (3) |
At the pub bombing in Soho, Andrea Dykes, 27, four months pregnant with her first child, died along with her friends and hosts for the evening, Nik Moore, 31, and John Light, 32, who was to be the baby's godfather. Andrea's husband, Julian, whom she married in August 1997, was seriously injured. The four friends from Essex had met up in the Admiral Duncan to celebrate Andrea's pregnancy.[7]
Investigation and arrest
Following the Brixton bombing, officials initially emphasised that
Although these had been described by the police as specifically race-hate attacks, they had issued a warning that a gay bar could potentially be the bomber's next target, and The Yard – a pub in the Soho area – had displayed a poster warning customers to be alert.[5] On Thursday, 29 April, CCTV footage from the Brixton attack was given wide publicity after an image of the suspected bomber was identified on it. This caused Copeland to bring forward his planned bombing of the Admiral Duncan to Friday evening. Paul Mifsud, a colleague of Copeland, recognised him from the footage and alerted the police about an hour and twenty minutes before the third bombing.[11]
The Admiral Duncan bombing was linked to the previous ones by police, with far-rightists once again the
Copeland was arrested that night once the police obtained his address, a rented room in Sunnybank Road, Cove, Hampshire. He admitted carrying out the three bombings as soon as he opened the door to the police, telling them, "Yeah, they were all down to me. I did them on my own." He showed them his room, where two Nazi flags were hanging on a wall, along with a collection of photographs and newspaper stories about bombings.[14]
In May 2021 the informant 'Arthur' who identified Copeland spoke to The Guardian about David Copeland and the contemporary threat from the extreme right.[15]
In July 2021 the handler of the informant 'Arthur' published an article on the work of the Community Security Trust, which included David Copeland and such work continues now.[16]
David Copeland
David James Copeland was born on 15 May 1976, in
After his arrest following the bombings, Copeland told psychiatrists that he had started having sadomasochistic dreams when he was about twelve years old, including dreams or fantasies that he had been reincarnated as an SS officer with access to women as slaves.[19] He left school for a series of failed jobs, reportedly blaming immigrants for the difficult job market. Copeland became involved in petty crime, drinking and drug abuse. His father was eventually able to get him a job as an engineer's assistant on the London Underground.[18]
Copeland's father called him "fairly intelligent" as a child. His parents
Political views
Copeland joined the far-right
Motivation
Copeland maintained he had worked alone and had not discussed his plans with anyone. During police interviews, he admitted holding
After his arrest, Copeland wrote to BBC correspondent Graeme McLagan, denying that he had
Conviction
Copeland's mental state was assessed at
On 30 June 2000, Copeland was convicted of three counts of murder and planting bombs and given six life sentences.[1] The trial judge doubted that it would ever be safe to release Copeland.[26]
On 2 March 2007, the
Further conviction
In June 2014, Copeland attacked a fellow inmate at
See also
- Right-wing terrorism
- Combat 18
- Tony Lecomber
- David Myatt
- The First Domino, a 2009 play written by one victim of the Soho bomb[29]
- Homophobia
- White supremacy
- Xenophobia
References
- ^ a b c Buncombe, Andrew; Judd, Terri; and Bennett, Jason. "'Hate-filled' nailbomber is jailed for life", The Independent, 30 June 2000.
- ^ Thompson, Tony; Honigsbaum, Mark; and Ridley, Yvonne. "Nail bomb injures 48 in Brixton blast" Archived 14 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 18 April 1999.
- Carroll, Rory and Woodward, Will. "Bomb survivors tell of bloody chaos" Archived 1 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 19 April 1999.
- For the image of the baby, see "The London nail bombs" Archived 15 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, accessed 2 March 2011.
- ^ Sengupta, Kim; Gregoriadis, Linus; Mullins, Andrew (26 April 1999). "East London Bombing: 'We knew Brick Lane would be next, but thought it wouldn't be so quick'". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
- ^ "Car bomb explodes in London's Brick Lane" Archived 4 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Press Association, 24 April 1999.
- Millar, Stuart. 'We're at war and if that means more bombs, so be it...' Archived 4 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 27 April 1999.
- Millar, Stuart. "Anti-terror police seek White Wolf racist over bombs" Archived 4 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 28 April 1999.
- ^ a b Simon Edge. "Look Back in Anger". Gay Times. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
- ^ "Nail bomb explosion at London pub kills two" Archived 4 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 30 April 1999.
- By Honigsbaum, Mark; Campbell, Denis; Thompson, Tony; Ryle, Sarah; Veash, Nicole; and Wazir, Burhan. "Bomb factory man seized as death toll rises" Archived 4 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 2 May 1999.
- "Gay community hit by nail bomb" Archived 4 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 5 May 1999.
- Vasagar, Jeevan. "Celebration that ended in deaths of three friends", The Guardian, 1 July 2000.
- ^ Jeevan Vasagar Celebration that ended in deaths of three friends Archived 20 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine 1 July 2000 theguardian.com, Retrieved 17 April 2019
- ^ "Canada adds neo-Nazi groups Blood & Honour, Combat 18 to list of terror organizations". Global News. 26 June 2019. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
- ^ Combat 18 'claims nail bomb attack' Archived 24 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine, 19 April 1999, news.bbc.co.uk, Retrieved 17 April 2019
- ^ Andrew Mullins and Mark Rowe The Brick Lane Bomb: Race terrorism fear as bomb blasts East End Archived 6 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine, 25 April 1999 , independent.co.uk, Retrieved 17 April 2019
- ^ Jonathan Cash (30 April 2009). "Admiral Duncan bombing: The day my life changed forever". Pink News. Archived from the original on 3 May 2009. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
- ^ "Racist 'Wolves' emerge from shadows". BBC. Archived from the original on 2 April 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
- ^ Two dead, 81 injured as nail bomb blasts gay pub in Soho Archived 15 May 2023 at the Wayback Machine, 1 May 1999, independent.co.uk, Retrieved 17 April 2019
- ^ a b c Hopkins, Nick and Hall, Sarah. "David Copeland: a quiet introvert, obsessed with Hitler and bombs" Archived 2 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 30 June 2000.
- ^ Townsend, Mark (23 May 2021). "Far-right attack inevitable, warns informant who identified London nail bomber". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
- ^ Rich, David (1 July 2021). "Deep inside UK's neo-Nazi underground". The Jewish Chronicle. Archived from the original on 1 July 2021. Retrieved 25 December 2021.
- ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Archived from the original on 2 May 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
- ^ a b c d Ryan, Nick. Into a World of Hate: A Journey among the Extreme Right. Routledge, 2004, p. 83.
- ^ Clarke, Pat and Raif, Shenai. "Bomber 'dreamt of Nazi sex slaves'" Archived 12 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent, 16 June 2000.
- ^ Sue Clough and John Steele The happy, loveable lad who grew up a hate-filled loner Archived 2 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine 1 Jul 2000, telegraph.co.uk, Retrieved 17 April 2019
- ^ Bomber 'had abnormality of the mind' Archived 18 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine 14 June 2000, news.bbc.co.uk, Retrieved 17 April 2019
- ^ a b Attewill, Fred. "London nail bomber must serve at least 50 years" Archived 2 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 2 March 2007.
- ^ "The Nailbomber" Archived 8 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, BBC Panorama, 30 June 2000.
- ^ BBC News. "Profile: Copeland the killer" Archived 13 July 2004 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, 30 June 2000.
- ^ Stuart, Julia (18 September 2001) "Bernard O'Mahoney: Helping to secure convictions" Archived 8 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent
- ^ Hopkins, Nick. "Bomber gets six life terms" Archived 2 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 1 July 2000.
- ^ "Nail bomber David Copeland loses sentence appeal" Archived 7 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, 28 June 2011.
- Pink News. Archivedfrom the original on 30 October 2015. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
- ^ Emily-Ann Elliott (5 May 2009). "Bomb survivor writes Brighton play". The Argus. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
Further reading
- "Nailbomber 'followed Nazism'" Archived 26 December 2003 at the Wayback Machine, BBC, 15 June 2000.
- "Life sentence for London nailbomber", The Job, London Metropolitan Police, 30 June 2000.
- "Admiral Compton Bomber" Archived 26 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine, Rainbow Network, 21 July 2000.
- "Operation Marathon", London Metropolitan Police website, including photographs of Copeland's bedroom and excerpts of interview transcripts.