1999 London nail bombings

1999 London bombings
Brixton Spitalfields Soho 1999 London nail bombings (Greater London) Spitalfields Soho 1999 London nail bombings (the United Kingdom)
Location	London,England
Date	17 April 1999(1999-04-17)– 30 April 1999(1999-04-30)
Target	Black British,British BengaliandLGBTpopulations in London
Attack type	White supremacistterrorism,bombings,murder
Weapons	Nail bomb
Deaths	4 (including an unborn baby)
Injured	140
Victims	Andrea Dykes, 27 Nik Moore, 31 John Light, 32 Unnamed unborn baby, 4 months old
Motive	Neo-Nazism / Attempt to start arace warin England

The1999 London nail bombingswere a series of bombexplosionsinLondon,England. Over three successive weekends between 17 and 30 April 1999, homemadenail bombsweredetonatedinBrixtoninSouth London;atBrick Lane,Spitalfields,in theEast End;and at theAdmiral Duncanpub inSohoin theWest End.Each bomb contained up to 1,500 100 mm nails, induffel bagsthat were left in public spaces. The bombs killed three people and injured 140 people, four of whom lost limbs.

On 2 May 1999, theMetropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branchcharged 22-year-old David Copeland with murder. Copeland, who became known as the "London nail bomber", was aNeo-Nazimilitant and a former member of two political groups, theBritish National Partyand then theNational Socialist Movement.The bombings were aimed at London'sblack,Bengali,andLGBTcommunities.Copeland was convicted of murder in 2000 and given sixlife sentences.

Overview

Brixton Market bomb

X-rays fromGreat Ormond Street Hospitalshow a nail from the Brixton bomb embedded in an infant's brain.

The first bombing, on Saturday, 17 April 1999, was inElectric 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 atBrixton 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 theIceland 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.

Brick Lane bomb

The second bomb, on the following Saturday, 24 April, was aimed atBrick Lanein theEast End of London,which has a largeBangladeshicommunity. There is a street market on Sundays, but perpetrator Copeland mistakenly tried to plant the bomb on Saturday when the street was less busy. Unwilling to change the timer on the bomb, he instead left it in a blackReebokbag onHanbury Street.There it was picked up by a man who brought it to the police station on Brick Lane, which was shut. The man had placed it in the boot of hisFord Sierracar which was parked outside number 42 Brick Lane, where it exploded.Thirteen people were injured, and surrounding buildings and cars were severely damaged.

Admiral Duncan bomb

The third and final bomb was planted and detonated on the evening of Friday, 30 April atThe Admiral Duncanpub onOld Compton StreetinSoho,the heart of London'sgay community.At the time the pub and the street outside were crowded because the evening was the start of abank holidayweekend. The unattended sports bag containing the bomb, which was taped inside, was noticed by patrons of the Admiral Duncan; however, the bomb exploded at 6:37 pm just as the bag was being investigated by the pub manager, Mark Taylor.Three people were killed and a total of seventy-nine were injured, many of them seriously. Four of the survivors had to have limbsamputated.

The 2023 act of remembrance marking the anniversary of the bombing

Victims

Andrea Dykes, four months pregnant, was killed and her husband Julian seriously injured.

Casualties (deaths)
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'sgodfather.Andrea's husband, Julian, whom she married in August 1997, was seriously injured. The four friends fromEssexhad met up in the Admiral Duncan to celebrate Andrea's pregnancy.

Investigation and arrest

Following the Brixton bombing, officials initially emphasised thatIRAinvolvement was unlikely and that it was more likely to be the work of right-wing terrorists following theStephen LawrenceInquiry that was released at the time, or a 'copycat' ofEdgar Pearce.On 19 April,Combat 18,aneo-Naziterroristorganisation, claimed responsibility via telephone.By the time of the Brick Lane bombing a week later, which the police linked with the Brixton bombing, it was clear that a racist entity was behind the attacks. It also ignited fears of racial tensions, particularly after the release of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry in February, and as Brixton was the scene ofrace riots in 1981.

Although these had been described by the police as specifically race-hate attacks, they had issued a warning that agay barcould 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.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.

The Admiral Duncan bombing was linked to the previous ones by police, with far-rightists once again theprime suspects.Two hours after the bomb, theneo-NaziWhite Wolvesorganisationclaimed responsibility for the attack. It was feared other ethnic minorities, such asJewsandAsians,would be targeted next. Somesynagoguesincreased security as a result.

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 twoNaziflags were hanging on a wall, along with a collection of photographs and newspaper stories about bombings.

In May 2021 the informant 'Arthur' who identified Copeland spoke toThe Guardianabout David Copeland and the contemporary threat from the extreme right.

Perpetrator

"David Copeland" redirects here. For other uses, seeDavid Copeland (disambiguation).

Photograph of Copeland taken after his arrest in April 1999

David James Copelandwas born on 15 May 1976, inHanworthin theLondon Borough of Hounslow,to a working-class couple. His father was anengine driverand his mother was a housewife. Copeland lived for most of his childhood with his parents and two brothers inYateleyin Hampshire, attendingYateley School,where he obtained sevenGCSEsbefore leaving in 1992. Journalist Nick Ryan wrote that, as a teenager, Copeland feared he washomosexual;when his parents sang along toThe Flintstonesthemeon television— "we'll have a gay old time" —he reportedly believed they were sending him a message. As an older teenager, he began listening toheavy metalbands and earned himself the nickname "Mr Angry". Ryan wrote that the staff at his school have no recollection of him during this period, as if he had become invisible.

After his arrest following the bombings, Copeland told psychiatrists that he had started havingsadomasochisticdreams when he was about twelve years old, including dreams or fantasies that he had been reincarnated as anSSofficer with access to women as slaves.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 theLondon Underground.

Copeland's father called him "fairly intelligent" as a child. His parentsseparatedwhen he was aged 19, and his mother told lawyers and psychiatrists after the arrest that he was a "happy lad" and showed no sign of what was to come. According to psychiatrists, Copeland also had a higher than averageIQ.One of the doctors believed his behaviour started to change around 1995 when he was 19, isolating himself from friends and family.

Political views

Copeland joined the far-rightBritish National Party(BNP) in May 1997, at the age of 21. He acted as a steward at a BNP meeting, in the course of which he came into contact with the party's senior members and was photographed standing next toJohn Tyndall,the leader of the party at the time. During this period Copeland readThe Turner Diaries,and first learnt how to make bombs using fireworks with alarm clocks as timers after downloading theAnarchist Cookbookfrom the Internet. Copeland left the BNP in 1998, regarding it as insufficiently hardline because it was not willing to engage inparamilitaryaction,and joined the smallerNational Socialist Movement,becoming its regional leader for Hampshire just weeks before the start of his bombing campaign. It was around this time that he visited his family doctor and was prescribedanti-depressantsafter telling the doctor he felt he was losing his mind.

Motivation

Copeland maintained he had worked alone and had not discussed his plans with anyone. During police interviews, he admitted holdingneo-Naziviews and talked of his desire to spread fear and trigger arace war.He told police, "My main intent was to spread fear, resentment and hatred throughout this country; it was to cause a racial war." He said, "If you've readThe Turner Diaries,you know the year 2000 there'll be the uprising and all that, racial violence on the streets. My aim was political. It was to cause a racial war in this country. There'd be a backlash from the ethnic minorities, then all the white people will go out and vote BNP. "

After his arrest, Copeland wrote to BBC correspondent Graeme McLagan, denying that he hadschizophrenia,and telling McLagan that the "Zog" orZionist Occupation Governmentwas pumping him full of drugs in order to sweep him under the carpet. He wrote, "I bomb the blacks, Pakis, degenerates. I would have bombed the Jews as well if I'd got a chance." Ryan writes that Copeland's first idea had been to bomb theNotting Hill Carnivalafter seeing images of the 1996Atlanta Olympics bombing.When asked by police why he had targeted ethnic minorities, he replied, "Because I don't like them, I want them out of this country, I believe in the master race."Whilst onremand,Copeland also wrote to crime writerBernard O'Mahoney,who posed as a woman called Patsy Scanlon in the hope of duping Copeland into confessing. According toThe Independent,the letters helped secure a conviction by giving prosecutors evidence about Copeland's state of mind.In one letter to "Scanlon", Copeland wrote about how he was faking mental illness and was amazed by how many experts accepted his lies; the letter was included in the trial and greatly damaged the hopes of his defence team, in getting a manslaughter conviction based on extenuating circumstances.

Conviction

Copeland's mental state was assessed atBroadmoor Hospital.He was diagnosed by five psychiatrists as havingparanoid schizophrenia,while one diagnosed apersonality disordernot serious enough to avoid a charge of murder. There was no dispute that he was mentally ill, but the extent of this, and whether he was unable to take responsibility for his actions, became a matter of contention. At theOld Bailey,Copeland's plea of guilty tomanslaughteron the grounds ofdiminished responsibilitywas not accepted by the prosecution or jury.

On 30 June 2000, Copeland was convicted of three counts of murder and planting bombs and given sixlife sentences.The trial judge doubted that it would ever be safe to release Copeland.

On 2 March 2007, theHigh Courtdecided that Copeland should remain in prison for at least fifty years, ruling out his release until 2049 at the earliest, when he would be 73.Copeland appealed; on 28 June 2011, theCourt of Appealupheld the ruling.

Further conviction

In June 2014, Copeland attacked a fellow inmate atHM Prison Belmarshwith ashiv,an improvised weapon made from razor blades attached to a toothbrush handle. In October 2015, he pleaded guilty towounding with intentand was sentenced to a further three years in prison, of which he will serve eighteen months.

Media

The events of the 1999 bombings were the topic of several media investigations. In 2000, Nick Lowles wroteMr. Evil: The Secret Life of Pub Bomber and Killer David Copeland(John Blake, 2000;ISBN9781857824162).

In early 2021Netflixreleased the documentaryNail Bomber: Manhunt.

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
• Homophobia
• White supremacy
• Xenophobia

References

Further reading

• "Nailbomber 'followed Nazism'"Archived26 December 2003 at theWayback Machine,BBC, 15 June 2000.
• "Life sentence for London nailbomber",The Job,London Metropolitan Police, 30 June 2000.
• "Admiral Compton Bomber"Archived26 November 2005 at theWayback Machine,Rainbow Network, 21 July 2000.
• "Operation Marathon",London Metropolitan Police website, including photographs of Copeland's bedroom and excerpts of interview transcripts.