A white supremacist found guilty of planning a racist terror campaign involving home-made bombs has been given an indeterminate sentence.An Old Bailey judge said Neil Lewington, 43, from Reading, must serve at least six years in jail. He was convicted in July of having explosives with intent to endanger life and preparing for acts of terrorism.
The trial heard Lewington (pictured, left), who was arrested at a station, was developing a bomb-making factory in his bedroom. He was carrying components for two home-made bombs when he was arrested last October.
Lewington's arrest on a train at Lowestoft station in Suffolk was by chance, after he had been abusing a female train conductor. A search of his bag uncovered the home-made bombs. Later investigation of his bedroom at his parents' home in Tilehurstm Berkshire, found weedkiller, firelighters, three tennis balls with diagrams on how to convert them into shrapnel bombs, firework powder, electrical timers and detonators.
A notebook labelled "Waffen SS UK members' handbook" included a "device logbook" of drawings of electronics and chemical mixtures.
During the trial, Lewington was described as a loner who had been unemployed for 10 years after losing his last job owing to drunkenness, and who had also not spoken to his father for a decade. The court heard he spent time searching for girlfriends on chatlines, where he made racist remarks and spoke of converting tennis balls into bombs.
His defence QC had argued Lewington was just an "oddball" and was not a terrorist, but "a big pest, a nuisance". But he was convicted of seven out of eight explosives and terrorism charges.
BBC
