| Hateland -
Articles |
01/07/00
- Dads gay jibes led me to kill
By OONAGH BLACKMAN and JEFF EDWARDS
The Mirror
DAVID Copeland targeted gays at the Admiral Duncan pub
in Soho because his family had teased him about being
homosexual since he was 13. As a teenager he had just
one two-week fling with a local girl.Copeland told police
this led to constant taunts from his father. He also complained
his mother and maternal grandmother used to sing lines
from the theme tune to the Flintstones cartoon.
He claimed they sang the final line, "we'll have
a gay old time", at the top of their voices and laughed.
During his stay in Broadmoor in the run-up to his trial
Copeland told of his fury at the taunts. And he said his
parents forced him to see a doctor and have his genitals
examined because they were worried about "slow growth".
A friend said: "He went through life and always found
himself on the outside.
He was very conscious about sex and the fact he didn't
have much luck with girls." He got his kicks by watching
strip shows in seedy London pubs and paying prostitutes
for sex. A former inmate at London's Belmarsh jail, where
Copeland was held on remand, said: "He used to moan
about not being good at anything and point to his trousers
and say especially that. He seemed to be really hung up
about sex."
After his mum left home David moved to a dingy flat in
Stratford, East London. But this catapulted him straight
into the path of neo-nazis from the British National Party.
Copeland's grandfather William is convinced they are to
blame for the nail bomb campaign. He said: "When
he first met these people he was only 19, a very vulnerable
sort of age.
"Some of these Nazis are cunning people and they
would build a boy up and encourage him and make him feel
important." Copeland became known as an angry loner
and tried to ingratiate himself with BNP leader John Tyndall
and convicted henchmen Tony Lecomber. Copeland became
a member of the Newham BNP branch and went to about a
dozen meetings.
At one point he was acting as a minder to Tyndall at a
couple of BNP meetings. An unlikely choice as all his
new fascist friends towered above him. One BNP activist
at the time said: "You knew he had aggression in
him, but in lots of ways he was an ordinary bloke. "He
got involved in some fund-rising but he was naive politically."
At one stage Copeland disappeared saying he was going
to Russia on an engineering contract. But the trip never
took place and in the summer of 1998 he was back in touch
with the BNP. By now he was living back in Hampshire and
was determined to ignite a race war.
At the end of 1998 he was in touch with the fledgling
National Socialist Movement - the political wing of the
neo-Nazi outfit Combat 18. Copeland got information from
the group on mixing poisons and how to escape detection.
At one point he was made NSM southern commander - with
no unit to command. But to Copeland it was status. When
he was arrested in May 1999 the NSM was abruptly disbanded.
BNP leaders have desperately tried to play down the link
with Copeland.
There was huge embarrassment when The Mirror ran an exclusive
picture soon after Copeland's arrest of him standing next
to a bloodstained Tyndall. BNP leader Nick Griffin tried
to blame Copeland's actions on the NSM. But during his
trail he claimed he had launched the nail bomb campaign
for the BNP. |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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