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[atmospheric music playing]
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-Could I have a beer? -[man 1] Of course.
-Thank you. -[man 1] I'll get you one.
-[bottle opening] -[lid clattering]
-[siren wailing in distance] -[liquid pouring]
[man 1] Why did you agree to meet me?
[laughing]
It's an interesting story, and, um…
I've got a different perspective.
[brooding music rising]
[chanting] Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!
[man 2] I spent 10 years undercover in the far right.
It was so much worse than I thought it was going to be. Really.
It was hardcore.
The first years, especially, it was like full-on Nazi,
and people were, like,
competing to be as radical as possible.
And there was talk about starting a race war.
Yeah, the race war.
We would come to a time where we needed to, like, kill people.
[crowd yelling]
[man 2] And we'd have hit lists.
And then, like, you'd have, like, the bomb makers themselves.
[crowd shouting]
[man 2] In the 1990s, there was trouble in the streets.
A lot of tension.
All someone had to do was light a match.
But we didn't think anyone was really gonna do it.
But then one person did.
[suspenseful music playing]
[projector clicking]
[stopwatch ticking]
[siren wailing]
[suspenseful music playing]
[man 3, on recording] This interview is being tape-recorded.
I am Detective Sergeant Terrence Boland,
attached to the Anti-Terrorist branch at New Scotland Yard.
The other officer present is…
[Johnstone] Detective Constable Philip Johnstone
from the Anti-Terrorist branch of New Scotland Yard.
[Boland] Today is the 1st of May, 1999,
and the time is now 18:13 according to my watch.
[machine clicks, whirs]
[Boland] You know, the whole idea of us sitting here
is to get to the truth.
[suspect] I'd just be the spark, that's all.
The spark that would set fire to this country.
The thoughts, they were getting stronger and stronger.
I just couldn't get it out of my head.
My destiny, you know?
Eventually, I woke up one morning, and I weren't thinking about it anymore.
I was gonna do it.
[Johnstone] When were you intending to blow it up?
[suspect] Saturday.
Half past five.
["Red Alert" by Basement Jaxx playing]
♪ Red alert, red alert It's a catastrophe ♪
♪ But don't worry ♪
♪ Don't panic ♪
♪ Ain't nothing going on but history… ♪
That beautiful morning
everybody was everywhere,
the sunshine, Brixton was bubbly,
and people were doing their own things.
[fruit vendor] Peaches, plum, nectarines! There are strawberries! Come on!
We got Harrod's fruit at Woolworth's prices!
Brixton is amazing place to be.
It's a historical place to be, you know?
This is where all the Black people
came to first in London.
♪ Don't panic ♪
People work together, people live together.
We knew people from all over the world.
People selling everything and everywhere,
getting their penny from where they can.
[CD vendor] Yeah, that's £2, darling.
[man 4] We got all the C-- every CD in the charts.
[man 5] Snoop Dogg…
[man 4] Michael Jackson, Madonna.
I actually had an adult film made by Snoop Dogg.
Yeah.
-Pirate it-- But I never watched it. -We never sold that.
-We did. -Didn't think so. All right then.
[man 4] Sorta Robin Hoods. In their eyes, we were Robin Hoods,
but not in Our Price's eyes anyway. Our Price used to be over the road,
and we used to say things like, "This is my price, not Our Price."
We had a lot of rhymes.
"Didn't fall off a lorry, had to jump and get it myself."
"I don't care if you're in the game or out the fucking game,
half the shopping store prices."
-Really liked that. High-five. -[laughs]
-Don't leave it hanging. -[both laughing]
[clock beeps]
[woman 1] Coconut!
Coconut, coconut, very fresh here.
We were all there, a happy, lovely day.
All of a sudden, my neighbor said to me,
"Wow, Talent, there is a bag here,
and I can hear the noise."
I said, "What sound are you hearing?" He said, "Come and see."
So, I came out of my stall,
and it was going… [rhythmically] "Tinkum, tinkum, tinkum, tinkum, tink--"
That was just the sound in that black bag.
[stopwatch ticking]
[man 4] It could've been gold bullion. It could've been loads of drugs.
It could've been loads of money. It weren't our bag.
I opened it up, I had my face in it
and then we're like, "It's a bomb."
[stopwatch ticking]
Then it's like, "Is it a bomb?" I'm not a bomb expert,
but I knew it was a bomb when I see it.
And I'd never seen a bomb before.
It was like a cartoon bomb, you know?
-Yeah. -With a clock, ding-a-ling, and all that.
-So, you kinda just know. -The alarm clocks with the old bells.
With the bells on.
-The round face clock in a Tupperware box. -It was like that.
[man 5] And outside-- Coming out the box was wires, and they were going…
-[man 4] Into a brown block-- box. -[man 5] …into a box full of nails.
I said, "Call the police, call the police"
because we don't know what was happening or who kept the bag there,
because there was nobody there.
So, I walked back into my stall by the time--
to attend to my customers.
I remember walking off, going, "I ain't having none of this,"
and then coming back.
I remember the guy,
like, people was going, "Oh, don't be so stupid."
"Put it in the bin, wheel it down there, never happened."
It was mad-- It was like no one knew what to do.
[clock beeps]
No one would believe this story. I've told this story many times.
A crackhead took the bomb out of the bag and nicked the bag.
"Nah, you're joking me."
"No way did it happen."
"Yes, I swear down. It happened, man."
-Even now there's crackheads-- -The crackhead come from this angle.
[whistles] He come kind of from, like--
from around the stall, picked it up.
At this time, we're going, "Leave the fucking bag, you nutter. It's a bomb."
Where he's touching the bomb, everyone's going, "What are you doing?"
Everyone can see the bomb now, he took it out.
It's there, it's blatantly there, and he just gradually--
He just went like that… [clicks tongue] …took the bag, and walked off up the road.
He wanted the bag. He just took the bag. I mean--
The security guard phoned the police, the police come over--
As the police walked over I went, "That's a bomb."
-[explosion] -[high-pitched ringing]
[people screaming distantly]
[sirens wailing]
[officer, on megaphone] Everyone move back, please! Thank you.
[crowd clamoring]
[clamoring continues]
I don't remember landing or getting thrown off my feet.
-All I remember is getting off the floor. -[man 4] Exactly.
Just getting off the floor.
-I could hear you shout at me. -Yeah.
-He was screaming out my name. -That was after.
[man 5] I found him on a stretcher underneath, um, a bus stop.
"I'm over here, Lee."
[people clamoring]
I had to dodge…
under my trolley.
I didn't think anybody survived,
because it was like the whole building collapsed on everybody.
[explosion]
[uneasy music playing]
I got a little nail in the leg.
I can't believe he didn't get hit. He was in front. That's mad.
There's people with, like, limbs missing, with nails in their head, I thought,
"Why do I need to waste a stretcher going to hospital with a nail?"
-[man 5] They cut his jeans up. -[Lee] It hit me in the leg.
So, me mum just bought me these for me birthday.
"Don't cut my jeans! My mum got me these for my birthday." I'll never forget that.
[Talent] There were glasses all over the place.
Because I wasn't hurt,
I was grateful for that.
Most people around there,
there were lots of casualties.
Everybody were running all over the place
trying to find out if their loved ones are safe.
It was a horror in the day.
[suspenseful music playing]
[tape recorder clicks]
[Johnstone] Did you think of the consequences?
[suspect] No.
On the train, I just kept imagining it exploding.
I had to do it.
I was like a robot.
[Johnstone] Did you think of the…
the people?
[suspect] No.
Not at all.
[tense music playing]
[man 6] Thirty-nine people were injured,
including a child with a four-inch nail
embedded in their skull.
[sirens wailing]
The combination of burns and blast injuries
with severe shrapnel injuries is a very difficult thing to deal with.
This bomb was designed
to kill as many people as possible,
and it is miraculous that nobody lost their life on that day.
The whole design of a nail bomb
is-- is to do the maximum amount of harm
to the maximum number of people, to kill as many people as possible.
Putting fragments of metal inside a bomb
and-- and then exploding,
it's going to carry this metal
300 miles an hour.
Nails are accompanied by anything else
that the blast wave picks up on the way.
And as it moves through different people,
it can carry bits of one person
into another.
So, you end up with very complex wounds
where bits of somebody's leg
can end up… end up in their chest,
or they can end up in the chest of the next person.
We had never seen anything quite like this before.
You join me in the heart of Brixton
where the mood is one of rising anger
against whoever was responsible for the nail bomb.
[man 7] Brixton is a very tense area.
We just want to sort out what happened Saturday,
and we take it from there.
With me now is Mike Franklin.
He's from the community police consultative group.
Mike, I've seen today how high tensions are running here.
Yes, uh, people are angry.
This was a-- a-- a cowardly, callous attack on innocent people
going about their lawful daily business in Brixton on Saturday.
Limbs amputated,
shredding injuries from-- from-- from nails.
People that-- deafened, blinded.
It wasn't a bomb, a bit of a loud noise down the road.
This was-- This-this ruined people's lives.
Police were very, very careful not to jump to conclusions.
You know, they wanted to say, "We're keeping an open mind
about what the motivation of this is."
[tense music playing]
I thought it was a racist attack.
Instinctively.
You live-- live down here and that happens,
and you normally have an idea.
And you had police officers saying things to you like, you know,
"We wanna catch the bomber as much as you do."
And you'd say to them, "No, no, you don't, because, like, where do you live?"
"You're not living in an area that's a target for this."
And the fact that the bomber didn't kill anybody the first time around,
there's a possibility he might come back.
[man 8] You know, London had had bombings before.
The IRA campaigns, you know, weren't that distant a memory.
[reporter 1] This morning, evidence taken from the wrecked building
is being minutely examined by the bomb squad.
One theory is that the attack
was a calculated act of defiance by the IRA
after the discovery in Southampton…
But what we hadn't had experience of
was a bomb of that type
in the middle of a pedestrianized shopping high street.
[phone ringing]
Annette, hi. Simon Foy here.
I was the young, fresh-faced, inexperienced,
quite aspiring,
probably slightly naive
potential commander to Brixton Division.
It was the most challenging place to… to work.
[uneasy music playing]
It was quite a tense atmosphere.
There was lots and lots of speculation
about what was going on and who was responsible for it.
A whole load of reasons went through my mind.
We knew there was some gang violence brewing up,
and there had been some shootings fairly recently.
Was it that?
And people were sort of saying, "Come on, then…"
You know, "What are you gonna do about it?"
[man 9] Don't you think, sir, it is time
to come clean and say you have not got enough police officers
to do the job that is necessary within this community?
[Franklin] People felt under-protected and over-policed.
We'd all been through the Brixton riots of '81.
Deaths in custody, we'd been through all that stuff,
so a lot of us in the community
weren't that happy or comfortable
working with the police, 'cause we didn't trust them.
[man 10] The police are harassing members of our community through stop and search.
The police announced that they're going to swamp our area
because of the bombing.
[Franklin] Police stop and search was a real issue when I was young growing up.
Going into Brixton on a Saturday afternoon with friends,
to record shops, things like that.
One of the things that would happen most Saturdays
is you'd be stopped and searched by the police.
[reporter 2] The senior policeman who runs this area was telling me
that the advice he'd give you lot
is to think seriously about joining the police force.
-He hasn't got enough-- -[youths laughing]
[Franklin] Friends got taken to the police station,
come out with bruises,
and they'd tell you they got punched in the face by a police officer.
That was-- That was fairly normal.
[crowd shouting]
Those were the things that sowed the seeds of antipathy
between the community and the police.
Now to the day's other news.
Detectives investigating yesterday's bomb explosion
in Brixton in South London
say they're keeping an open mind about who planted the device.
The attack has not been linked to a known terrorist group.
Were you here last Saturday?
[man 11] We've had lots of people that have come forward,
uh, but no one has been able to tell us
anything particular, uh, about the bomber at this moment in time.
[man 12] No one really had a clue of anything.
Was it a group of people? Was it one person?
It created real fear.
The police were not really monitoring the far right at that time.
They say they were and people were getting picked up every now and then,
but there was a mindset at the top of the security services
saying that the far right weren't a threat.
They just wrote about these things, they weren't going to carry it out.
You know, just a bunch of hooligans. Why are we having to look at these people?
Searchlight was a private intelligence operation.
We infiltrated and monitored fascist groups.
[crowd chanting] Rights for whites! Rights for whites!
[man 12] We'd been warning about it for years.
Terrorist movement defending the last stand,
taking on the system.
Kind of an underground guerrilla army.
And it was all about terrorism. All about killing people.
[crowd chanting] Sieg Hiel! Sieg Hiel!
Sieg Hiel! Sieg Hiel! Sieg Hiel!
[man 12] These were dangerous times, and we wanted to stop these people.
The more we can find out what they're up to, the more we can…
stop what they're doing,
draw attention to what they're doing.
And then, we were contacted by someone
volunteering to get involved.
Hello, Searchlight.
Said he was a young lad in his early 20s, who was political,
very, very anti-racist.
Obviously, from my perspective, the best thing he could do
was to go inside the far right.
And that's what he did.
[siren wailing in distance]
[man 1] Is it important to still keep your identity a secret?
[man 2] Yeah.
'Cause, like, these guys really are dangerous.
[man 1] And they still believe that you're a Nazi?
[man 2] Yeah.
[man 1] Why did you do it?
[man 2] I like being a spy. It's, um…
[exhaling]
It's a buzz.
[man 1] Can you start at the beginning, Arthur?
[Arthur] In 1999, I was undercover in the BNP.
[Tyndall] For the new century, we need a new ideal,
a new kind of politics.
[Arthur] The British National Party was the law and order party.
[Tyndall] We must stop immigration,
and we must help the immigrants return home.
[Arthur] We projected ourselves as being decent,
honorable, law-abiding citizens.
We were the good guys.
To build a movement, which in the coming century
will put the "great" back into Britain.
[Arthur] But behind that,
you'd be going to, like, a BNP meeting
at a church hall or, like, a back room of a pub.
Fuck off.
[Arthur] And people were, like, distributing hit lists,
overtly Nazi propaganda,
bomb manuals.
It was their dream that someone would go out and blow up
someone they've suggested to target.
So, it was pretty extreme.
My assumption was
that they'd keep the Nazi thing
out of the way for new recruits,
but straight away they were saying killing Jews was a good thing.
-[man 1] First day? -[Arthur] First day, yeah.
[man 1] What did you think?
[Arthur] The thing was, I was shocked. I was scared, but I was also excited.
And also, like, the fact that they were so overtly Nazi,
that's more reason to carry on, isn't it?
[man 1] Did you feel people were checking you out?
Were they sussing you out?
[Arthur] Not really, no.
I guess they were thinking that
why wouldn't any white man want to join their organization?
-[crowd shouting] -[car alarm blaring]
[Arthur] Obviously, the anti-fascists had no idea I was on their side.
So, there were a few times I got whacked.
The worst time was actually-- It was, like, a girl,
and, um, like, she was smashing me over the head with, I think, a hammer.
This was my reality.
[unsettling music playing]
[suspenseful music playing]
[tape recorder clicks]
[Boland] What do you believe in, son?
[suspect] We've got so many poor white people in this country.
You get all this bullshit,
everything has to be equal, everything this…
It just puts white--
It demeans the white man in this country now.
People like me.
[Boland] So, you wanted to put some bombs down?
[suspect] Yeah, yeah. As many as I could.
One a week.
[Johnstone] Why did you put nails in them?
[suspect] It means they'd smash windows, stick into people, and maim people.
And kill people.
[somber music playing]
[stopwatch ticking]
[brooding music playing]
[clock beeps]
[recorder playing scale]
[explosion]
[car alarm blaring]
-[crowd screaming] -[car alarm blaring]
[sirens wailing]
[reporter 3] The second weekend in the capital,
it appears that ethnic communities have once again been targeted
in an attack without any warning.
[reporter 4] Brick Lane is sealed off tonight,
and as well as a sense of shock,
there's also a sense of relief that nobody was actually killed.
This strikes at the heart of the-- the Bengali community.
We have a problem, which is tantamount to racial terrorism.
[camera shutters clicking]
These things are… are outrageous, that we will not tolerate,
and we'll make every effort to find out who-- those responsible.
They'll be prosecuted and brought to justice.
No doubt about that.
With me is Siddy Shivdasani, who's the editor of Eastern Eye newspaper.
We've received, uh, death threats even today at our offices.
We actually warned our readers last week.
if you live in a Black or Asian area to be aware.
Whilst politicians and the police
were dithering about whether it was a racial crime,
in the meantime, they were planning their next attack.
[Shivdasani] I was just trying to get my message out there
of my personal frustration with the police.
You know, try and do the right thing.
That's what I was trying to do then, to do the right thing.
I was editor of a British Asian paper at the time.
We faced a fair bit of racism.
[scoffs] Oh, you just got used to it after a while,
and it was just a bit mindless, really.
But then we got this letter.
It was from some group called the White Wolves.
I knew that an Asian area was gonna be targeted next. I felt it.
But the police gave us no advice to look for anything suspicious
or to be vigilant. Nothing.
We felt like they didn't give a fuck.
[news jingle playing]
The homemade bomb that exploded in South London on Saturday
seemed to have been an act of lunacy.
Tonight, you can help, and this is how.
This is the quantity of nails packed around the explosives.
Who bought this lot?
It wasn't a regular customer, wasn't a regular builder.
Who came in for this sort of quantity of nails?
Alan Fry is head of the Anti-Terrorist branch.
Alan, has it taken you any further, what you've got so far? Do you know?
I'm-- I'm sure it has,
although it's-- it's too soon, uh, to be able to, uh, be particular
in regard to a-- a particular line of inquiry.
Well, if there's any way that you think you can help, please, please do.
There's a £10,000 reward. That may go up.
[woman 2] There weren't many serial killers in this country,
let alone there'd never been a serial bomber.
You know, people were afraid.
People were afraid.
[tense music playing]
I was the senior investigating officer.
The responsibility was huge.
I had no experience in-- in terrorism investigation.
It brought the pressure to a different-- a completely different level.
[reporter 5] Police are viewing hours of tape
from closed-circuit TV cameras
in the hope that the person who planted the device
will have been caught on film and someone may recognize them.
The quality of the CCTV in 1999
wasn't great.
However, we started to find images
that-- that might be the bomber.
There was someone wearing a white baseball cap
who was carrying over their shoulder
what appeared to be a sports bag.
The only difficulty was
he wasn't recognizable.
We went to all sorts of different agencies.
We even went to the Americans and-- and the military.
I mean, we sent it out there hoping,
uh, that-- that someone could enhance it.
Um, they couldn't.
We had to just keep looking.
I started working with the police.
I mean, I did joint press conferences.
So, when they produced this picture of an individual
who may be the bomber,
there was arguments with me about whether it should be published.
Because it's grainy.
Um, it's an inconclusive picture.
My view was, "No. If that was a member of somebody's family, they'd know it."
"Put it out now. Put it out today."
"We can't do that."
[clears throat]
I said, "Well, while you're prevaricating,
the bomber is preparing the next bomb."
"It's urgent. Put it out now."
"Don't waste time."
"What are you gonna say to me
if a bomb goes off while we're here having this conversation?"
"And I'm telling people that you could've stopped it."
"Put the fucking picture out."
But nobody did.
[man 12] Police were coming to us, "Had we heard anything?
What was our view?"
We were asking people the same questions.
Who's going to be targeted next? Are people gonna get killed?
By that stage, people were taking credit for it around the country. White Wolves.
There were letters were being circulated out of the East Midlands.
We went into overdrive. I remember at the time, it was like
24/7 trying to figure out who could it be.
Drawing up lists, who-who… who could have been doing this sort of thing?
No-- no one had heard anything.
[somber music playing]
[man 1] What were you doing to try and find the bomber?
I was just finding people.
Pretending, first of all, that I was happy,
and I was saying, like, "Any idea who it is?"
That sort of thing.
But no one had a clue.
No one had a clue.
It's quite difficult to be in a situation where you're… you're spying on people
and you-- you try to switch that-- that,
like, the voices off in your head,
but it's not easy.
I--
I became immune to-- to the racism
and the fascism.
We'd-- we'd-- we'd look up to… heroes
within our movement, like the Waffen SS,
Hitler, of course.
For a racist, it was an inspiring environment.
[man 1] Did you feel yourself being brainwashed?
[Arthur] I'd love to say I thought it was all bullshit.
But--
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, they indoctrinated me. Yeah.
It was like you--
Yes, I doubted the Holocaust happened.
And I was even thinking
that maybe I was naive
if I followed the mainstream view
that it did happen.
If they can get inside my head,
imagine what it was doing to other people.
-Come on! -[crowd shouting]
When you're ready!
[crowd chanting] Rights for whites! Rights for whites!
When you were in that bubble,
you were with like-minded people.
They had the same grievances as you,
they had the same background as you, a lot of them.
You were, like, insulated from reality.
I was part of it back then.
This is our country!
Our own race traitors,
who are trying to destroy this country,
they are the enemy!
[crowd cheering]
[man 14] A guy called John Tyndall was our leader.
He was a very high-profile right-wing politician at the time.
Tyndall was a magnet for misfits,
lunatics, and losers, really.
That's what he wanted,
'cause he could… he could control 'em.
He would never say, "Go out and blow people up,"
or "Attack people," but he was very clever with words.
His speeches were quite rousing, you know.
We will fight on, work on, march on, and struggle on
to build a country for which they died
and give Britain back to the British people!
[crowd applauding and cheering]
[man 14] We used to go to different meetings,
and they were always in pubs.
And so, you had all these violent young men,
intoxicated,
being told that they're being threatened by these hordes of immigrants,
and they're gonna murder you in your beds and rape your wife and eat your children.
[crowd shouting]
[man 14] After the meeting, there would always be violence.
-[rioter] Come on then, you wanker! -[cheering]
Are you all right? Can I get vitals?
[man 14] You've got this rage inside you all the time, and…
anger and frustration,
and then it just--
You can-- you can spew it all out. You know what I mean?
You can vent it on someone else.
I remember after one particular meeting,
I had a transit van.
It toured the area
and dragged Black people off the street.
Kidnapped them, basically,
and they were subjected to some pretty awful violence.
If the BNP didn't have that meeting in the pub…
and tell everyone that they were under threat and in danger,
they wouldn't have gone out attacking people.
You know, they-they incited them to do it, and then they'd wipe their mouth
and go home to his…
million-pound pile in Surrey or wherever it was and…
we'd go back to our shitholes in Stockwell, you know what I mean?
Job done, then.
That's-- that's how it happens.
That's how they manipulate people and use people, and--
Yeah, I've done some pretty… pretty shit things, really.
Really bad things.
[machine whirring]
[Johnstone] When did this come into your head that you wanted to do this?
[suspect] Oh, don't know. A few years ago.
[Boland] 'Cause you're only 22 now, right?
[suspect] Yeah, so I was about 20.
[Boland] You've heard in the newspaper, no doubt,
and it's been printed, about this White… White Wolves organization.
[suspect] I don't know who they are. I-I don't know who they are.
I-I don't care who they are.
[Boland] So, they would have no idea who you are?
[suspect] No. No idea at all.
[Boland] So their claims are purely fictional?
[suspect] Made up.
Just trying to, you know, take my glory.
[machine clicks, whirring]
[suspect] My aim was political. To cause a racial war in this country.
[unsettling music playing]
[Johnstone] What does that mean?
[suspect] There'll be the uprising and all that.
You know, the racial violence in the street, whatever.
[Johnstone] What was your intention at that point?
[suspect] I was thinking of a target I was gonna blow up.
[Johnstone] Had you decided at this time where you were going to put the bomb?
[suspect] Yeah.
Soho.
[reporter 6] Two bomb attacks in London
have understandably led to fears in the capital that there is more to come.
Racists, we are told, were probably behind the bombs,
and they probably intend to strike again.
["Alice From Above" by Dave Antrell playing]
♪ Alice from above ♪
♪ Has a face that makes you Want to fall in love ♪
♪ Fall in love ♪
♪ All I wanted is a… ♪
[man 15] Nobody knew which community was gonna be targeted next.
Would it be the Chinese community?
Would it be the Jewish community?
There was a lot of discussion.
But the early conversations were all about race, all about ethnicity.
Nobody was thinking about, uh, the fact
that this could go wider to the gay community.
[dance music playing]
[man 15] The visible part of the gay community was in Soho,
and probably Old Compton Street.
You could kind of barhop
from one bar or one gay venue to another.
They were thriving, they were energetic,
they were full of life.
It felt very free.
It felt as if you could be in those spaces and be yourself.
[dance music continues]
When the second bomb went off, things became very clear very quickly.
This was somebody who hated difference.
They hate people who are different,
who-- who don't fit their perception of normal society.
We began having conversations with the police at quite a senior level.
We were told that it was a-- a racial issue.
And we raised our concerns, and it was met with some skepticism
and some disbelief at Scotland Yard.
So it was really pretty much down to us
to ring round the managers of the key venues,
the pubs, the clubs, the coffee bars, the restaurants, to say…
"This could come to us. Please be aware. Be vigilant."
[suspenseful music playing]
We will defeat the people who are responsible for these bombs.
We will catch them.
We don't have specific corroboration for any particular group,
uh, who are responsible for these outrages,
but clearly, it is-- it is most likely to be, um,
far-right extremists who are targeting minority groups.
[man 12] Everyone was kind of blind to it, 'cause no one knew where it was coming.
But everyone was expecting for it to happen.
I'd meet Arthur in places where we thought
other people who knew him or knew me wouldn't be.
Tourist hotels in London,
meet outside London.
He understood what his mission was.
And he understood that he had to stop them.
[Arthur] I'd meet my contact
and go through all these names of people I knew already…
and mentioned this guy
who I'd referred to as "Dave from Barking"
because he-- he mentioned that was where… where he was living.
We were a similar sort of age,
bonded a little bit,
talked about music
and the fact he didn't like people with brown faces very much.
I last saw him at the annual rally
when, um, he was acting like a-a steward.
He had, like, a steward's armband. He stood next to John Tyndall.
I think Tyndall got quite badly beaten up by anti-fascists.
After that, Dave just, like, disappeared.
And I didn't think anything of him.
[projector clicking]
[uneasy music playing]
[tape recorder clicks, whirring]
[suspect] After Saturday at Brick Lane,
I got a taxi to Soho to do a bit of recon.
[Johnstone] Roughly what time would this have been?
[suspect] Must've been about 7:00.
[Johnstone] Right. So, what was your intention at that point?
[suspect] I was thinking what pub I was gonna blow up.
I went down to Old Compton Street.
I wanted to make sure it was the right pub 'cause I was after a queer one.
A gay one or whatever you wanna call it.
[Boland] Have you got a problem with gays, then?
-[suspect] Yeah, I have. -[Boland] Why?
[suspect] I'm just very homophobic.
That's pretty-- You know, I just hate 'em.
[Johnstone] Why?
[suspect] I don't know. You just do.
[Johnstone] There must be a reason.
[suspect] I got a thing about homosexuals.
I just don't like talking about it, you know what I mean?
I chose the gays 'cause I hate them.
You know? I mean, that was personal.
[Johnstone] The tape doesn't pick this up, but when we speak to you about the gays,
you-- you have to close your eyes, and you seem quite intense there, David.
[David] Yeah. I just don't like them.
I just don't like them, yeah?
[stopwatch ticking]
I'm completely straight. Don't worry about that.
[Johnstone] No, no, no. It's not a problem, but it upsets you.
You know? I don't know why it upsets you.
It upset you enough to plant a bomb.
But I don't know why.
[unsettling music playing]
[reporter 7] After the two Saturday afternoon bombings in London,
police forces around the country are warning people
who could be potential targets to be vigilant this weekend.
Detectives fear the Brick Lane and Brixton bombs
could be the start of a nationwide racist terror campaign.
Police say they don't want to spread panic
but want everyone to be aware of the possible threat
of another bomb this bank holiday weekend.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Foy] There were two things that drew attention to the suspect.
Instead of looking at thousands of people,
your job is to look at all those thousands of people who might be carrying a bag.
And then once that bag was found, then there was the hat he was wearing.
But there was hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours.
[woman 2] At first, the images were so bad you couldn't tell who it was.
But then we started to find other images that were clearer.
The guys were straight down at my office. "Boss, you've gotta see this."
[Foy] I distinctly remember that moment.
Here's the image. This is the bomber.
[thrilling music playing]
[reporter 8] Before rush hour, it was on posters at stations
and other key locations across the capital.
The images have been posted on the internet
and are being sent to every police force in the country.
[reporter 9] Even though the police suspect he may be behind the bombing,
if he's watching this broadcast
and he honestly thinks he's innocent, then he should come forward.
[tape recorder clicks, whirring]
[David] I heard on the radio that you had pictures of me.
And at first, I thought, "That's it. I'm caught."
So, I've immediately gone straight home, and I've realized I ain't been caught yet.
I built my device, set the time, I packed it all up.
Waited till about half past four, caught a taxi up to Soho.
[Johnstone] What time did you set the timer up for the Soho bomb?
[David] Six thirty.
[clock beeps]
[man 16] It was my day off.
I think I'd been to a gallery, and I was on my way home.
And it was a Friday,
beginning of a-- a holiday weekend. The weather was glorious.
I think maybe it was late afternoon.
There were people finishing work, there was an-- an air of gaiety
and, you know, it was like a holiday weekend.
There was an atmosphere.
And I'd been into the Admiral Duncan once before, I think.
Um, didn't really remember it all that well,
and I was passing by, and I thought,
"Fancy a half a beer."
It was a small pub. Narrow.
And it-it was sort of beginning to be buzzing.
You know? And people were arriving all the time.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Arthur] It was a Friday afternoon.
And I had heard the police had identified footage from Brixton.
I saw copies of the Evening Standard.
Pretty much straight away, I thought that it might be Dave from Barking.
And then my contact at Searchlight phoned,
and I just said,
"It could be David Copeland."
[Foy] We started going through our own records,
all the stuff that Arthur had told us over the years,
and, you know, there we found Copeland's name
in a number of different meetings, a number of different events.
So a colleague of mine contacted the police.
[clock beeps]
[siren wailing]
[suspenseful music rising]
[David] Looked at my watch. I still had, what?
An hour to go before the ignition?
I sort of waited by the telephone box,
making it look like I was waiting for the phone.
I went in there about I'd say ten--
ten to six.
Ordered a drink.
When I was in there, I seen the people I was gonna maim and kill.
I didn't feel joy about it.
I didn't feel sad.
I just didn't feel anything.
[Johnstone] And how long were you here for at the end of the bar, you said?
[David] Fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes.
[Johnstone] Is that right? You had a glass of Coke or something?
[David] A glass of Coke.
I left it there and I asked one of the men in there if there was a bank nearby.
[Johnstone] And this is just as you left, was it now?
-[David] Yeah. -[Johnstone] Yeah.
[Boland] How many people were actually in the public house
when you actually put the bag down? Do you remember?
[David] Between 15 to 20 people.
I struggled to actually get out of the place.
I had to go around people and ask them to move.
I knew that people would be killed, but I had to do it.
[clock beeps]
[dance music playing distantly]
[man 16] The noise level was getting louder.
Ordered the beer.
I don't know whether I even sipped it.
-And then… -[snaps fingers]
[music stops suddenly]
[high-pitched ringing]
I couldn't hear anything.
Something's really strange.
I felt really strange.
Everything switched off.
I don't feel right.
And I think that I was still leaning on… on the bar.
And I looked across to where the optics and-- and-- and things--
and the bottles should have been, and there was nothing.
Just darkness, wisps of smoke,
and nobody.
I-I couldn't see anybody, couldn't hear anything.
And I can remember turning
to-- to look to see what was going on,
and then the next memory is of being…
looking up at a-- a young woman,
and I could see her mouth opening and closing, screaming, I think.
[somber music playing]
I learnt later, if you're in a bomb, your eardrums get blown.
I think that I was dragged outside and there was a guy
who was with me and-- who said that I was talking to him.
I could tell him where I came from.
I don't remember any of that. None. None of it.
I was taken to hospital.
They didn't know whether I was gonna live.
They had me on some pretty strong drugs.
And I remember, sort of, dreaming and things like that
while they were altering, um, the level of-- of pain medication.
I was having this dream about being in a nightclub, and everybody was rats.
And the rats were dressed as human beings.
[eerie music playing]
There were rats in the wall. I could hear them.
There was a-- a biplane.
You know, one of those planes that goes onto the water?
That arrived at the… at the nightclub.
Rats, rats, and more rats.
[rats squeaking]
[liquid pouring]
I learned later that, um, Copeland had let his rats--
He had pet rats.
And he let them, um, run across the stuff that he was packing the nail bombs with.
And, um, so, from what I can tell,
the guys that were in the same hospital as me,
um, we all got these weird infections,
and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with us.
And it was all because he let these rats…
you know, like, urinate and defecate
all over whatever it was that he was jamming in there.
-[sirens wailing] -[somber music playing]
[man 6] As these patients came in one at a time,
we began to realize just how serious this was.
They had quite horrific injuries.
This was like a war scene.
Patients came in with extensive burns,
unconscious,
one after another.
And perhaps the most difficult thing I've had to do in my career
was dealing with a patient who had come in unconscious,
and he remained unconscious for a few days.
As he came round gradually,
we realized that we had to speak to him
to give him the worst possible news.
Two friends had both died
and tragically his wife and unborn child
had also been killed.
[somber music playing]
It's been revealed that a pregnant woman and the best man at her wedding
were among the three people killed in the explosion.
Andrea Dykes was killed almost instantly.
Her husband, Julian, is in a critical condition in hospital.
[Arthur] I was at home when I heard.
It was just complete shock.
And helplessness.
You know, we were--
We were, uh, close,
um, in terms of--
You know, we felt we were getting very close to catching the perpetrator.
[siren wailing]
We'd tracked down a-- an address that he was possibly living at.
[siren continues wailing]
[machine clicks, whirring]
[David] Honestly, I wanted to get caught.
[Boland] Why?
[David] I'd be famous in some sort of way.
[Johnstone] And what does fame mean to you?
[David] It's existence.
[Johnstone] What's that mean? I-I don't understand.
[David] If no one remembers who you were, you never existed.
[Johnstone] All right.
It would be remiss of us not to ask…
why you did it?
[David] To spread fear, resentment, and hatred.
I am a Nazi.
I admit that.
Yeah.
[machine buzzing]
[Boland] David, that is the buzzer
indicating that the tape is about to finish,
so we will finish at this moment in time.
[machine stops whirring]
Yes, ladies and gentlemen,
in the early hours of Saturday the 1st of May,
unarmed officers from the Organized Crime squad Flying Squad
arrested a 22-year-old man in Cove, Hampshire.
[ominous music playing]
[man 17] The man is not a member
of any of the groups which have made claims of responsibility
for the bombings.
It is understood that he was working alone
for his own motives.
[booming, dark music playing]
[reporter 10] The start of David Copeland's murder trial
was attended by more than three dozen of his victims
and the relatives of those he killed.
The 24-year-old defendant denies three murder charges
due to diminished responsibility.
[man 14] Copeland wouldn't be the first person
who thought he could get away with murder by claiming he's mad.
I've got a massive problem with people
who harm women or children.
And so when Copeland happened--
For-- He's murdered that woman,
and he's murdered an unborn child.
You know, I was never gonna let him get away with it.
His only option really
was to plead diminished responsibility,
so I needed him to confess that he was perfectly sane.
But these days, you've got these pedophile hunters on the internet,
and they pretend to be a male or a female,
and a pedophile will get in touch with them,
they'll arrange to meet, then they give the evidence to the police.
Well, if you like, before the internet,
um, I was doing a different version of that.
[woman 3] Dear David, you don't know me,
but I've been hearing about you in the news.
How can they call people monsters and evil without even knowing them?
I believe everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
Anyway, I hope you don't mind me writing to you.
Patsy.
[David] Dear Patsy, thank you for your letter.
I'm 5 foot 8, 23 with brown hair.
My mum says I'm handsome, but I don't know. [chuckles]
I can't picture what you look like.
Please send me a picture.
[man 14] With Copeland, he's gonna wanna be in control,
so I invented this girl called Patsy Scanlon.
Patsy was like these girls you see
in the 1940s propaganda films.
You know, she's lithe, blonde, beautiful.
Someone who'll do what they're told without question.
Someone who's vulnerable.
Totally airhead, do you know what I mean?
I knew he'd go for that one million percent.
I just knew it.
[reporter 10] For the survivors,
it was a day of harrowing evidence.
As the horrific injuries caused by the explosions were described,
several people were visibly distressed.
The trial was about whether he was mad or bad,
and he had a barrage of lawyers.
He had, you know, more on-- on his side
than what were on the other side, than the-- than the Crown.
[reporter 10] David Copeland pleaded not guilty to murder,
but said instead he was guilty of manslaughter
because of diminished responsibility.
It's now for the jury to decide his state of mind.
[man 14] Essentially, what I needed was a smoking gun.
I needed him to say, you know, something
that showed he was playing a game with the doctors,
but I didn't have a lot of time to get him.
[Patsy] Dear David,
I hope you're not too worried about your trial.
It must be a stressful time for you.
[David] Dear Patsy,
you are a very attractive young lady.
[laughing]
Oh, you know.
My plan was to build Copeland up.
By doing that, get him to open up.
[Patsy] I hope you're feeling confident and thinking positive thoughts.
[David] It feels strange being famous.
[Patsy] Dear David,
I saw your picture in the papers the other day.
Your mum is right. You really are handsome.
[David] Dear Patsy,
I can't get you out of my mind.
All I do is dream about you and when we can finally meet.
And he signed that "Love, Dave," which was an escalation of things, really.
The whole mood of Copeland's letters changed.
[David] Dear Patsy…
[man 14] I had a… a flurry of letters at that point.
[David] Your letters are the only things that are keeping me going here.
I lie on my bed at night and think of you.
Promise me, Patsy, you'll never forget about me.
-Hope I'll hear from you soon. -[man 14] Then, finally, I had him.
[David] Dear Patsy, this place is a joke.
So are the doctors.
They think they're clever,
but they're as stupid as the fools in here.
Things are not looking too bad for my trial.
I can't believe that I fooled all the doctors.
"I can't believe that I have fooled all the doctors."
The jury looked at the correspondence in its entirety.
Saw it as I saw it. Saw it as the psychiatrist saw it.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with him.
Copeland was showed photographs of these horrific injuries
and all the misery and pain he'd caused,
and not once did he show a sign of emotion.
But then when the prosecutor read out
that, um, the girl he wanted to marry
was actually a… an hairy-arsed bouncer from Essex called Bernie,
you know, he put his head in his hands and slumped in the dock.
You know, his-- his world ended.
[reporter 11] David Copeland, the young fanatic
who worshiped Adolf Hitler and planted nail bombs across London,
is in Broadmoor tonight starting six life sentences.
He was convicted of murdering three people and injuring nearly 150 others
in a bombing campaign that targeted Blacks and homosexuals.
The jury rejected his plea
that he wasn't responsible for his actions.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[camera shutters clicking]
[dramatic music playing]
[crowd cheering]
[reporter 12] For two of the survivors, a poignant moment outside the Old Bailey.
David Copeland has not achieved his aims of fame and power.
Today's verdict prove he-- proves he is a dangerous, pathetic nobody
who is now where he belongs.
-Thanks, fellas. -[reporter 13] Thanks.
[crowd cheering]
Everybody was saying, "Come on, we'll go out for a drink" and "Yeah."
And I can remember thinking… [scoffs] "Nothing to celebrate here. Really."
[man 18] Oh, beautiful.
To new beginnings.
[man 16] I've always had this real overwhelming sense of, um,
what a bloody waste.
What a waste of human life.
His included.
'Cause he'll never get out, he'll never be any use to anybody.
And what he's done to all these people, you know?
Hundreds and hundreds of people.
[somber music playing]
[Arthur] I wish…
I wish we'd been able to stop it.
Just, like, stop those people from being killed and injured.
[man 1] So, there's some sort of guilt that exists, is there?
[Arthur] Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
Definitely.
I think about that a lot.
I thought I'd got over it. [laughing] And then it came back.
[sighs]
I, you know, well--
Joining the BNP, I wanted, like, the excitement of, like, being a spy and…
all that, and, like, taking on, like, the bad people.
But when something on that scale happened,
I wish-- I wish we'd been able to stop what happened sooner.
Yep.
[somber music playing]
[man 12] Arthur was someone who was motivated by doing something good.
At the time, there was a reward. There was a reward put out by the police.
Seventy-thousand pounds for his identification.
Arthur was never interested in a penny.
And even now. I mean-- There were some people in his family,
only on the 20th anniversary of the London nail bombings
that some of his family found out what-- what he had done.
That he wasn't a Nazi after all.
Arthur had been inside for 10 years,
you know, week in, week out, going to British National Party meetings,
being chased down the street by anti-fascists,
being attacked by anti-fascists,
going to concerts with Nazis,
and he'd done all of this and--
Of course, you know, he did far more than just identify Copeland.
He played a major role
in the British National Party not building on their successes in East London.
Tyndall failed to take hold across the country because of Arthur.
The police say that the BNP presence does introduce an element of racial tension--
Oh, "The police say, the police say, the police say."
-So you don't believe them. -No, we don't accept it at all.
And you don't accept the courts and the convictions that your members have.
I've told you before,
our members have no greater proportion
of convictions than any other party members.
Okay. Thanks very much.
Right. Get your stuff out of here with the minimum delay.
You people are true to form.
You're exactly the way that, uh, we've learned to expect, and…
[introspective cello music playing]
[activist] They're trying to drive us apart,
and the message we're giving them here today,
that it's the reverse effect.
We're coming together!
-In a way you've never seen us before! -[crowd cheering]
Let's march to fulfill this day!
I think that someone like Copeland,
someone trying to do what Copeland did, will never succeed.
What gives me hope
is that there are still more good people than bad people.
And-- and the haters can never win.
In the long-- in the long term, the haters can ne-- can never win.
And it must be… it must be horrible to be consumed with hate.
You know?
Think about all the things you can't enjoy 'cause, you know, you're full of hate.
No. Today's Friday. I'm gonna go home and have a beer.
[laughing]
[somber music playing]