SPY WHO LED COPS TO I still fear for my life after I helped catch nail bomber
AN informant who helped nick the nail bomber who unleashed terror on London says he still lives in fear – 20 years after the devastation.
The mole infiltrated twisted David Copeland’s inner circle as the racist killer plotted carnage.
Copeland’s bombs killed three and injured more than 100 in a 13-day hate campaign in 1999.
The spy put himself at the heart of a group hellbent on peddling racist bile – and was so convincing that until recently his own family still believed he was a neo-Nazi. And he still fears what might happen if his cover is ever blown.
Still using his undercover codename of Arthur – and hiding his face – he tells us: “These are dangerous people. They still believe I’m a Nazi.”
Arthur was working for antifascist group Searchlight. As a mole he heard hour upon hour of racist and homophobic ideology – so incessant that he feared he was losing his grip on reality.
He infiltrated far-right groups in the back rooms of London pubs and churches as part of Operation Searchlight.
Fanatics passed around Nazi propaganda and shared sick fantasies of killing Jewish people.
BUZZ
After meeting Copeland at British National Party meetings in 1997, Arthur filed reports to his handlers – always naming the racist as “Dave from Barking”.
And when Copeland, now 45, planted bombs at Brixton Market, Brick Lane and The Admiral Duncan pub in Soho, it was this evidence that helped trace him.
Now Arthur has told how he even lied to his family, who continued to think he was a neoNazi. In new Netflix documentary Nail Bomber: Manhunt, Arthur said: “I joined because I liked being a spy – it was a buzz.”
He said the BNP tried to portray itself as “the law and order party”, adding: “We projected ourselves as decent, honourable, law-abiding citizens. But people were distributing hit lists or Nazi propaganda, bomb manuals.”
Eventually the pressure of going undercover began to tell.
He claimed the indoctrination techniques used by the fascists even had him questioning the existence of the Holocaust.
Arthur said: “It’s quite difficult when you’re spying on someone and you try to switch the voices off. It’s not easy. I became immune to the racism and the fascism.
“I’d love to say that I thought it was all bull **** , but definitely they indoctrinated me. I was thinking, ‘Maybe I’m naive’, that I follow the mainstream and [the Holocaust] didn’t happen. If they can get inside my head, imagine what it does to other people.”
Engineer Copeland hung Nazi flags at home and wanted to “stir up a racial war” with homemade explosives targeting black, Bengali and LGBT communities.
He was 22 at the time and would later claim he had been having sadistic dreams from the age of 12. He had thought about killing classmates – and longed to be reincarnated as an SS officer. Arthur described how his handler tapped him up for inside info. He said: “I’d meet my contact and go through all these names of people and I already mentioned this guy who I referred to as ‘Dave from Barking’.
“We bonded a bit, we talked about music and the fact he didn’t like people with brown faces very much. I last saw him at an annual rally when he was a steward.” It
BRIXTON
50 were hurt in street bombing was in the spring of 1999 that Copeland went on his rampage, with targets across the capital.
Arthur said: “I wish we had been able to stop it, to stop people being killed and injured. I think about that a lot. I thought I got over it but it comes back.”
Psychiatrists concluded Copeland had been a paranoid schizophrenic for years. But it was the crime author Bernard O’Mahoney,
I feel guilty if I ever enjoy myself... I’d rather Andrea would be here than myself NATALIE PATERSON WHOSE SISTER DIED IN PUB BOMBING
61, who helped convict him of murder. Bernard posed as a woman called Patsy in letters to Copeland as he awaited trial.
The killer took the bait, finally telling “Patsy”: “I can’t believe I’ve fooled all the doctors.”
The admission helped convict him and he got six life terms, serving a minimum of 50 years.
Bernard said: “He wouldn’t be the first who could get away with murder by claiming he was mad. I have a massive problem with anyone who harms women and children. So when he murdered that woman and the unborn child, I was never going to let him get away with it.
CRIED
“His only option was to plead diminished responsibility so I needed him to confess that he was of perfectly sound mind. In court, Copeland was shown photos of victims and the pain and misery he caused and not once did he show any emotion.
“But when the prosecutor read out that the ‘girl’ he wanted to marry was actually a bouncer from Essex called Bernie he put his head in his hands and cried.”
Copeland first struck on April 17, 1999, leaving a sports bag containing a bomb on the corner of Electric Avenue in Brixton. Traders spotted it but, just as the police arrived at 5.25pm, the device exploded. Fifty people were injured.
The following Saturday, a second explosion took place near Brick Lane, East London.
Copeland had left a bomb in a Head holdall. Police were called, but 13 people were injured when the device went off.
Four days later, police identified a man in Brixton who had been carrying a Head sports bag.
The CCTV images were given to the media – prompting Copeland to bring his next attack forward by a day.
The Admiral Duncan pub was full when he walked in. He left at 6.05pm and heard the explosion as he walked back to his hotel.
Three people died and four needed amputations. Twentysix
SUNDAY MIRROR
suffered serious burns, another 53 were injured.
Copeland was arrested within hours and is now imprisoned at HMP Frankland, in Durham.
Among the dead was Andrea Dykes, 27, who was four months pregnant with her first child. She was killed along with John Light, 33, best man at her wedding, and their friend Nick Moore, 31.
Andrea’s sister Natalie Patterson has told of her eternal regret that her sibling never had the opportunity to be a mother.
Natalie, who has four children, said: “The guilt comes and goes when I’m sharing time with people I care about. If I enjoy myself I feel guilty for it. I would rather Andrea would be here doing these things than myself.”
dan.warburton@mirror.co.uk ■■Nail Bomber: Manhunt, from BAFTA-winning director Colin Barr, launches on Netflix, May 26
We called the killer ‘Dave of Barking’... I wish we could have stopped the carnage INFORMANT ‘ARTHUR’ ON
HIS UNDERCOVER MISSION