White supremacist planned race hate bombing: court

Posted 07 2 2009 7:49PM

LONDON (AFP) – A white supremacist arrested by chance at a railway station was on the verge of a race hate terrorism campaign, a court heard Monday.

Neil Lewington had developed a bomb factory in the bedroom of his parents' home in Reading in southern England containing canisters of weedkiller, firelighters and documents on gunpowder, the court heard.

Lewington, who idolised London nail bomber David Copeland and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in the United States, aimed to target "those he considered non-British," the Old Bailey court in London was told.

Lewington, 43, who faces eight terrorism related charges, was arrested last year for abusing a female train conductor in Suffolk.

Police discovered he was carrying components of two "viable improvised incendiary devices" in a bag.

In his wallet were handwritten notes entitled "device 1" and "device 2" with headings including "date", "place", "target", "weather" and "detonated?".

When police later searched his bedroom, they found a "factory for the production of many such similar devices" and a notebook called "Waffen SS UK members' handbook" containing drawings of electronics and chemical mixtures.

They also found videos of news footage about bombings.

"The effect of these finds is to prove that this man who had strong if not fanatical right wing leanings and opinions was on the cusp of embarking on a campaign of terrorism against those he considered non-British," prosecutor Brian Altman QC told the court.

Lewington at first explained the electronic timers found in his bag by police by saying he was an electrician.

Portrayed as a loner who left school at 16, Lewington allegedly told a former girlfriend that "the only good Paki was a dead Paki."

Another ex-girlfriend said he spoke of making bombs and asked at which house in her street an Asian family lived, the court heard.

"He explained how he could throw a tennis ball bomb or place it somewhere and then run away," Altman said.

Lewington also allegedly said he was a member of the far-right National Front and wanted the Ku Klux Klan in the United States brought back.

Lewington denies the charges. The trial continues.