| Hateland -
Articles |
20/06/00 - Bomber 'told of
fooling doctors'
By Sue Clough, Courts Correspondent
The Telegraph
DAVID COPELAND boasted of "fooling all
the doctors" in Broadmoor in letters to a penfriend
he believed was a sympathetic woman, the Old Bailey was
told yesterday.
In fact, Patricia Scanlon, who began writing to Copeland
the day he was charged with three counts of murder after
planting a nail bomb in a Soho gay pub, was a male journalist
playing "a low trick", said Nigel Sweeney,
QC, prosecuting.
Mr Sweeney produced the letters - which culminated
in Copeland telling "Patsy" he had fallen
in love with her - as he questioned Dr Andrew Payne,
a psychiatrist at the hospital, about Copeland's state
of mind. Dr Payne said that when Copeland was transferred
there from prison, he said: "I told people what
they wanted to hear. I liked tricking and confusing
people."
"Patsy" wrote to Copeland in prison "introducing
herself", and kept up the correspondence when he
went to Broadmoor. In his replies, Copeland asked her
to send him newspaper cuttings about his case. He complained
that Broadmoor "is full of lunatics", and
in a further letter said: "I can't believe that
I have fooled all the doctors."
Psychiatrists for the defence say Copeland suffers
from schizophrenia and believed that planting the bombs
was his destiny. Copeland, 24, an engineer from Cove,
Hants, has admitted causing explosions at Brixton, Brick
Lane and Soho in April last year. The last blast - at
the Admiral Duncan public house - killed three people.
He is being tried for their murders after the prosecution
refused to accept his plea of guilty to manslaughter on
the grounds of diminished responsibility. The trial, at
the Old Bailey, continues. |
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