For two weeks, in April 1999, David Copeland brought terror to the streets of London. Aged 22 at the time, he was a criminal driven by a hatred of ethnic minorities, and gay people. His carefully targeted nail bombs would kill three people and injure 139, some of them losing eyes and limbs.
April 17th 1999
At 5:25pm Brixton was busy with shoppers as Saturday trading drew to a close. Then, without warning, a massive blast ripped through the crowds, in the heart of London’s black community. Copeland had left a bomb, packed with nails, in a holdall outside the Iceland supermarket. It had been moved by suspicious locals, and eventually exploded on the corner of Electric Avenue. In all 50 people were hurt, some of them with nails embedded in their bodies. The X-ray shows the skull of a 23-month old toddler who survived despite nail embedded in their skull. It was clear from the start this was a deliberate act, intended to kill and maim.
Within days police had identified the bomber on CCTV images, using witness accounts. But while they thought they could see the bomber, they didn’t have the key information – his name.
April 24th 1999
Brick Lane, home to thousands of Bangladeshi Londoners, was Copeland’s second target. He left his device exactly a week after his first attack, but this time he had misjudged. He had expected the area to be crowded for it’s famous market, in fact Brick Lane market operates on Sundays. Copeland decided to leave the bomb anyway, in Hanbury Street, where it exploded. The force of the blast was devastating, tearing apart a car. Once again the device was packed with nails intended to maim or kill. But because of Copeland's misjudgement the area was quiet, and this time only ten people were hurt.
In the week that followed the Brick Lane blast thousands more man hours were spent scanning CCTV, and more images were released the to the media - gradually the growing catalogue of grainy images was improving chances that someone would recognise the bomber.
April 30th 1999
On Friday the 30th of April the police got the breakthrough they'd been hoping, and working for. A man contacted officers saying he thought the man shown in the CCTV pictures was a work colleague. The name he gave officers was David Copeland. But the information came just too late to prevent Copeland’s worst atrocity.
As police went to Copeland’s home in Hampshire he was already on the way to his third target – ‘The Admiral Duncan’ a gay pub at the heart of Soho. It was a busy Friday night, the pub packed with after-work drinkers at the start of a bank holiday weekend. This third nailbomb went off with devastating force inside the pub, it's blast and deadly cargo of nails confined by the building.
Three people were killed, one of them a pregnant woman. Four people had limbs amputated, in alll 79 people were injured, many of them seriously. But it was to be the the end of David Copeland's violent hate campaign.
When Copeland arrived home at his rented room later that night, anti terror police were waiting for him. Inside the room police found knives, walls covered with swastika flags and pictures of atrocities from around the world. Among the images on his walls were pictures of the aftermaths of his own bombings in Brixton and Brick Lane.
Although Copeland had been a member of far right groups, he acted alone, as a one man terror campaign. During police interviews he said he'd wanted to spark a race war. He was initially held at the Broadmoor high security psychiatric hospital, and his state of mind was a point of contention through his trial.
June 30th 2000
Copland was convicted of three counts of murder, and three counts of planting bombs. The jury rejected his claim of diminished responsibility. He was sentenced to six life sentences. The judge said he doubted it would ever be safe to release Copeland. In 2007 the high court ruled that Copeland should stay in prison for at least 50 years, ruling out his release until 2049 when he would be aged 73.
Crime
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