British EDL nazi soldier sentenced for nail bomb building

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Crimes That Shook Britain – The London Nail Bomber

22 November 2013

David Copeland (born 15 May 1976) is an English Neo-Nazi militant who became known as the “London Nail Bomber” after a 13-day bombing campaign in April 1999 aimed at London’s black, Bangladeshi and gay communities that resulted in three people killed and more than a hundred injured.

Widely labelled a terrorist, Copeland was a former member of two far right political groups, the British National Party and then the National Socialist Movement. Over three successive weekends between 17 and 30 April, Copeland placed homemade nail bombs, each containing up to 1,500 four-inch nails, in holdalls that he left in public spaces around London.

The first bomb was placed outside the Iceland supermarket in Electric Avenue, Brixton, an area of south London with a large black population. The second was in Brick Lane in the East End of London, which has a large Bangladeshi community. The third was inside the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho’s Old Compton Street, the heart of London’s gay community.

The bombs killed three people, including a pregnant woman, and injured 139, four of whom lost limbs. Copeland was diagnosed by five psychiatrists as having paranoid schizophrenia, while one diagnosed a personality disorder not serious enough to avoid a charge of murder. His plea of guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility was not accepted by the prosecution or jury. He was convicted of murder on 30 June 2000, and given six concurrent life sentences. In 2007 the High Court ruled that he must serve at least 50 years.

From daily The Independent in Britain:

Far-right extremist British soldier jailed for two years for building nail bomb

Ryan McGee kept bomb in his room with a collection of weapons

Jon Stone

Friday 28 November 2014

A British soldier with far-right political sympathies has been jailed for two years for building a nail bomb.

Ryan McGee, 20, constructed the device and packed it with 181 metal screws, bits of glass and explosives inside a glass jar.

Police discovered the device while they searched a home in Eccles, Greater Manchester, in connection with an unrelated investigation in November last year. Prosecutors said the bomb was “viable”.

Officers also found a collection of guns, knives and extremist right-wing material in McGee’s room, as well as the bomb-making manual The Anarchist Cookbook. The walls of the room had English Defence League (EDL) flags on them.

The soldier, who was arrested whilst serving in Germany, admitted to possessing a document containing information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, and to a second charge of making an explosive device.

The court heard McGee kept a journal entitled Ryan’s Story Book with stickers of Scooby Doo and birds on the front filled with drawings of guns, machetes, knuckledusters and knives and images of several paramilitary soldiers. It also contained references to right-wing groups such as the National Front, KKK and BNP, the court heard.

At sentencing, Recorder of London Brian Barker said the device could have done damage “in the wrong hands”.

“The fact of the matter is any explosive device in the wrong hands could cause untold misery to anyone on the receiving end. Sadly, we live in a violent age. Let’s be quite clear that any experimentation by anybody with these kinds of weapons must lead to severe sentences.”

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Following the sentencing, Detective Superintendent Simon Barraclough, from the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, said McGee had “stepped well over the mark of what can be considered acceptable behaviour”.

“McGee had in his possession a viable improvised device and the material and knowledge of how to make it. He clearly set out to make the device, which could have seriously injured or possibly killed members of the public,” he said.

‘Neonazi’ ex-soldier jailed for a year for anti-semitic Downing Street rant: here.

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