Nazi sympathiser jailed for planned nail bomb attacks

A Nazi sympathiser and paedophile who made nail bombs to attack black, Asian and Jewish people was jailed today for 16 years.

A judge at Leeds crown court told Martyn Gilleard, 31, of Poole Court, Goole, East Yorkshire, he believed he intended to cause "havoc" with the devices found by police under his bed. Gilleard was found guilty yesterday of terrorist offences and also of possessing child pornography. Gilleard was found guilty yesterday of charges of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts and collecting information for terrorist purposes.

Police found four nail bombs, bladed weapons, bullets, documents about terrorism and extreme right-wing literature when they were searching his flat for child pornography in October last year. Humberside police discovered around 39,000 indecent images of children, which included films and photographs and ranged from category one to five - where one is the least serious and five the most.

Gilleard admitted 10 specimen counts of possessing indecent images of children. He also pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possessing 34 cartridges of ammunition without holding a firearms certificate.

Police who searched Gilleard's flat discovered significant volumes of extreme right-wing literature and propaganda from far-right group Combat 18, as well as ammunition, weapons and homemade bombs. A further search by detectives and forensic teams from the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) in Leeds uncovered more explosive material, camouflage clothing, balaclavas, a bomb-making manual and outdoor survival guides.

They also found gunpowder, ready-made fuses and a notebook containing hand-written expressions of extreme anti-Semitic views.

A search of his workplace found a high-visibility jacket which had been modified with a hand-drawn swastika and Combat 18 lettering, and colleagues told police that Gilleard had expressed racist views.

Detectives launched a man-hunt when the father of one failed to return home after the original search of his flat. He was eventually found three days later and 300 miles away in Dundee, Tayside, and was arrested and charged with the terrorism offences after three days of questioning.

Gilleard's 31-year-old flatmate was also arrested but was later released without charge.

Gilleard was a member of a number of far-right groups, including the National Front, the British People's Party and the White Nationalist Party. In police interviews, he admitted sympathising with white supremacists and accepted that he was racist, but said he had become less racist in recent times.

During the six-day trial, he told the court he had an interest in the second world war and Nazism appealed to him because of the way the Nazis rebuilt Germany.

Gilleard claimed the nail bombs were not intended for serious violence and said he made them when he was bored after drinking "a couple of cans". But the prosecution said Gilleard intended to use the weapons and documents found in his flat in terrorist acts to further his political cause.

Guardian