BNP men planned bombs for 'race war'

Two British National party members plotted to make bombs in readiness for a "civil war between races", a court was told yesterday.

A former candidate for the party stashed boxes of chemicals at his home after buying them online at the instruction of a local dentist and fellow BNP member, jurors at Manchester crown court heard. However, the hoard amassed by Robert Cottage, 49, of Colne, Lancashire, came to light when his wife told her social worker she was scared that Cottage and 62-year-old David Jackson were planning to test chemical weapons in the local countryside.

"He had just lost the plot - he just started acting really strange," Kerena Cottage, 29, told the court via videolink. "What he was saying - it sounded to me as if he was delusional."

Prosecutor Louise Blackwell QC told the jury Cottage had emailed orders for the chemicals, which could be combined to make crude bombs, in September 2006. Four months earlier, he had tried to win a seat on Colne council for the second time.

Ms Cottage said her husband had been very enthusiastic in the BNP, rising through the party's ranks during three years as a member and becoming a friend of its leader, Nick Griffin. Alarm bells began to ring when Cottage led her to understand that the chemicals were intended to harm the government or anyone who came unannounced to their home.

"Our relationship before the BNP, it was brilliant," she said. However, she added that Cottage had become "really radical" and their marriage was ruined. "He thinks there's a war going to happen with the culture, the Asian culture and the white culture and that Tony Blair and President Bush are scheming against people," she said.

Ms Cottage added that her husband and Jackson were "solid" friends who met regularly to chat about politics, the BNP and Hitler. Police found guides to making bombs at the Cottages' home, along with ball-bearing BB guns, gas masks, body armour and stab-proof vests.

Cottage's mother, Barbara Cottage, told the jury her son's stockpiling of weapons was only for self-defence. "It was because he was afraid that his house or his family might be attacked," she said. "It was not to go out and attack anybody but because he might be attacked."

Cottage admitted possessing explosives at the pair's first trial in February, when a jury failed to reach a verdict on the more serious charge of conspiring to cause explosions intended to endanger life. He and Jackson deny this for the second time.

The trial continues.

Guardian

BNP candidate was 'stockpiling chemicals for civil war'

The wife of a BNP council candidate accused of stockpiling chemicals for a civil war reported him after he stopped her watching the television, a court heard.

Kerena Cottage, 29, reported Robert, her husband of three-years, after he became "radical" in his religious and political views and removed the TV aerial to shield her from "government propaganda".

Louise Blackwell, prosecuting, said: "He became more religious and controlling of her. He removed the aerial from the television so she couldn't watch what he described as the brainwashing material being put out by the government."

School bus driver Cottage, 49, is jointly accused with former dentist David Jackson, 62, of conspiring to cause an explosion between 1 January 2006 and 30 September 2006. Cottage admitted possessing explosives between the same dates during a previous trial. But Jackson, of Trent Street, Nelson, denies the charge.

Yesterday, Manchester Crown Court, heard that Cottage took delivery of 11 boxes of chemicals and ingredients after Jackson wrote him a letter setting out what to buy.

Miss Blackwell said the investigation began after Mrs Cottage, who suffers from schizophrenia, reported her husband to her social worker who called the police.

She said: "At the start of the relationship all was well but it degenerated. Robert Cottage met a member of the BNP and both he and Kerena joined the organisation. Kerena says some times they would go to meetings very regularly, at which times she described his attitude as radical. He stood on two occasions for the local elections and wasn't selected. Through his membership he met his co-defendant, who wasn't a member but attended meetings.

"Kerena Cottage describes her husband beginning to discuss Asian and white cultures and began listening to what she considered radical radio broadcasts over the internet."

Some time after the chemicals were delivered on 27 September to Cottage's home in Talbot Street, Colne, police arrested him.

The Crown say Cottage also had BB guns, a cross bow, gas masks, two 56 kilogram bags of sugar, a box of mini flares, half a ton of rice, 34 gas canisters, a selection of pellets and an air pistol. Also, officers found a series of printed bomb recipes from "The Anarchist's Handbook", downloaded from the internet.

"The prosecution say these recipes, particularly though not exclusively,show what the intention was of these defendants," said Miss Blackwell.

"Namely, they intended to make an explosion from what they had. These two men agreed to order chemicals that put together would cause an explosion and had the ability to endanger life or cause damage to property. They didn't have them for any lawful purpose."

(proceeding)

Burnley Citizen