Judge: Norway terror suspect is not insane

There is no reason to believe that Norway mass murder suspect Anders Behring Breivik is insane, District Court Judge Torkjel Nesheim said Monday.

There is also no evidence he had accomplices in the bomb and gun rampage in which he is accused of killing 77 people this summer, the judge said. The judge ordered him held in custody for a further 12 weeks, with visits and correspondence controlled by the authorities for the first eight, and a ban on media for the first four.

More than 500 people packed into a court in Oslo, Norway, to see the suspect's first public appearance, said Irene Ramm, head of press for the Oslo court. A woman whose daughter was killed in the massacre said she could not understand "how a human being could do something like that."

"That's why I had to be here today. I don't understand, so I had to see, had to be here," said the woman, who was identified only as "Carina" on Norway's TV2. "He looked cold, completely cold," she said.

He was not allowed to deliver a speech he had prepared, the station reported. Breivik said he did not recognize the authority of the court on the grounds that he opposes the multi-cultural society it is part of, TV2 said. He was stopped on several occasions when he started referring to himself as Commander of the Knights Templar, a title he used in his 1,500-page manifesto, the station reported.

"I interrupted Breivik during today's hearing because I only wanted to hear him about matters relating to today's hearing," Judge Nesheim said. "This was not the main trial where he gets to explain himself. I did not want to give him the opportunity to use this hearing as a platform for him to express his views."

Until now, the proceedings for Breivik have been held behind closed doors. The hearing was to determine whether to keep Breivik in jail until his trial in the spring. Prosecutors expect it to begin in March or April, the judge said.

Survivors return to scene of island rampage

He is accused of killing dozens of people in a bomb attack in Oslo followed by a shooting rampage on nearby Utoya island. Eight people were killed in a bombing in Oslo; 69 young people were killed on Utoya island, in the deadliest attack in Norway since World War II. The young people were attending a Labour Party youth camp. Most of the 700 campers ranged in age from 16-22, with some as young as 13.

Breivik has pleaded not guilty but admits carrying out the attacks, the judge said.

"The accused is still suspected on probable cause of criminal acts, as described in the charges. He has admitted the bombing in central Oslo and also the shooting on Utoya. The investigation has also confirmed this," Nesheim said.

He is described by authorities as a right-wing Christian extremist. The 1,500-page manifesto attributed to Breivik was posted on the Internet and is critical of Muslim immigration and European liberalism.

CNN

Norway killings: British 'mentor' says Anders Behring Breivik was not a lone wolf

The Norwegian man who has confessed to killing 77 people was not a "lone wolf," a British far-right activist thought to be the gunman's "mentor" said after being interviewed by Norwegian police.

Paul Ray, a blogger and former member of the English Defence League, told Norway's NTB news agency that police were "very interested" in British far-right cells mentioned by the attacker, Anders Behring Breivik.

"I don't believe Breivik is a lone wolf ... he is part of a larger movement which has its own agenda," Mr Ray said, without going into detail. "They (the police) were very interested in the British cells," added Ray. "They asked me if I was (head of) a cell."

In a statement he released shortly before embarking on his July 22 killing spree, Behring Breivik had spoken of the existence of secret cells that he said came under a new order of Knights Templar. The police were not available to comment.

Mr Ray, who lives in Malta, came to Norway voluntarily to speak to police investigating the twin attacks in Oslo and a nearby island. He is widely considered to be the unnamed "mentor" mentioned by the 32-year-old Behring Breivik in the 1,500-page manifesto he posted online shortly before carrying out the attacks.

Describing himself as a crusader at war against multiculturalism and Islam, Behring Breivik explained in the document that he once had "a relatively close relationship" with an Englishman he gave the pseudonym "Richard", "who became my mentor."

Mr Ray, who heads the "Knights Templar" movement and runs a "Richard the Lionhearted" blog, has said he recognised himself in the Norwegian right-wing extremist's description. Asked in an interview with Norway's NRK television station if he had any contact with Behring Breivik, including online, Mr Ray said "never". He has called the July 22 attacks "pure evil".

Behring Breivik has confessed to setting off a bomb outside government offices in Oslo killing eight people, before going on a shooting rampage on the nearby island of Utoeya, where the ruling Labour Party's youth wing was hosting a summer camp, killing 69 others, many of them teenagers. He is currently being held in solitary confinement at a high-security prison near Oslo, and has claimed he acted alone.

Telegraph

Thanks to Zaahid for the heads-up

Man guilty of stabbing 'veil martyr' to death in court

Russian-German who hated all foreigners jailed for killing muslim woman

It started with a seemingly trivial argument about a swing in a children's playground, but soon spiralled into one of the most shocking racist murders Germany has witnessed since its reunification. Eleven months later, Marwa el-Sherbini, a beautiful and well-educated Egyptian woman expecting her second child, was brutally stabbed to death with a 12-inch knife in front of judges in open court in the east German city of Dresden.

Her husband, tried to protect her and was attacked for his pains. He was left clinging to his 31-year-old Muslim wife in a pool of her blood on the courtroom floor, as their three-year-old son looked on. As he mouthed "She's dying, She's dying", Mrs Sherbini bled to death. Security guards had failed to intervene in time.

The case, which aroused scant interest in Germany at the time, provoked outrage throughout the Muslim world. Mrs Sherbini was dubbed the "veil martyr". Yesterday her killer, a 28-year-old German of Russian extraction, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Alexander Wiens stood motionless in the Dresden court only a few doors away from the courtroom where he carried out the murder. This time security has been exceptionally high, with 200 police officers standing guard.

His face covered with a hood and his eyes hidden behind sunglasses, the defendant was convicted of murder, attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm. Judges said that, because of the severity of Wiens's crime, he would not be eligible for parole after 15 years. An unemployed member of Russia's German-speaking minority, Wiens is one of thousands of Russian Germans who have moved to Germany since reunification. Many, whose forebears migrated to Russia in the 18th century, have failed to integrate into German society and are treated as outsiders.

Elwy Okaz, Mrs Sherbini's Egyptian husband, who is a geneticist, was in court to hear the verdict, still using crutches as a result of the injuries he sustained. He gave the court a tearful account of how badly their son, now aged four, missed his mother.

The court yesterday accepted the prosecution's argument that Wiens was driven by "an unbridled hatred of foreigners". The presiding judge, Birgit Wiegand, said Wiens, who, listed his activities as "drinking, smoking and gambling", had moved to Germany in 2003. She said he had described life in the country as "multicultural shit" and blamed foreigners for taking away German jobs. "He despised Muslims. In his eyes they were all Islamic fanatics," she said. "He wanted to be a perfect German."

The events that led to the tragic and brutal murder of Mrs Sherbini, a pharmacist who was working at Dresden University, began on a sunny Thursday afternoon in August last year when she strolled into a children's playground. She was wearing jeans, a white blouse and the only indication that she was Muslim was a small headscarf. With her was her son, Mustafa.

The toddler wanted a go on one of the two swings in the playground, but they were both occupied. Wiens sat on one, smoking a cigarette. Mrs Sherbini asked him in German whether he would mind getting off because her son wanted a turn. His immediate response was a torrent of insults. "You are an Islamist and a terrorist who has no business in Germany," he said, adding that she was no better than a "whore" and that her son too would grow up to be a "terrorist".

The mother was shocked and felt horribly insulted. A bystander who had witnessed the incident called the police. Mrs Sherbini was persuaded to file an official complaint against Wiens. Three months later, he was found guilty by a Dresden district court and ordered to pay a €330 (£298) fine.

Wiens refused and wrote a letter to the court which concluded: "I feel humiliated and unfairly treated by the German justice system." He appealed and the case was again referred to Dresden' district court. The following month the fine imposed on him was increased to €780. Wiens again refused to pay and launched another appeal which was heard by the city's regional court on 1 July this year.

Judge Tom Maciejewski, who was in charge of proceedings that day, has been too distraught to work ever since. He choked on his words and had to interrupt his testimony frequently when he was called as a witness at Wiens' subsequent murder trial. On the day of the killing he had assumed the case was regarding a minor offence that could be dealt with in minutes. Security was correspondingly lax.

"I registered the fact that Wiens had a bag on his lap and I heard the zip-fastener being pulled open," he said. "Then I saw him leap up and attack her with his fists. It was like a machine gun. I ran to him and tried to grab him ... and then I saw that he had this knife in his right hand."

The judge ran out of the court and tried to find help. When he walked back in, Mrs Sherbini's husband, who had by then also been knifed, was saying, "She's dying". At that moment an armed security guard ran into the courtroom and, assuming Mrs Sherbini's husband was the attacker, promptly shot him in the leg. By that time Mrs Sherbini was dead.

The shocking courtroom murder was hardly reported in Germany. The case was treated as a domestic argument that had run out of control and as a failure of court security proceedings. In the Muslim world however, it was treated as an example of German Islamophobia and provoked protests in several Arab countries.

Despite complaints that Chancellor Angela Merkel's government had failed adequately to condemn the murder at the time, Egypt's ambassador to Germany, Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, welcomed yesterday's verdict."I think that getting the maximum possible sentence says a lot," he said. "I think it enables the family to feel that justice has been done."

Maria Böhmer, the German government official responsible for immigrant affairs, said the verdict sent a clear signal. "The message is: there is no place for xenophobia in our country," she said.

Independent

Neo-Nazi jailed over terror plot

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

Jail for neo-Nazi terror offender

A neo-Nazi found with bomb-making materials at his flat and who harassed a mixed-race couple has been jailed for more than seven years

Grimsby Crown Court heard Nathan Worrell, 35, had bomb ingredients and far-right propaganda at the property. A jury found him guilty of possession of material for terrorist purposes and of racially aggravated harassment.

Terror police described Worrell, from Grimsby, as a "dangerous individual who harbours extreme anti-Semitic views".

The court was told that police found books and manuals on how make bombs and detonators using items such as weedkiller, lighter fluid and sugar. Two tubs of sodium chlorate weedkiller, three bottles of lighter fluid, and fireworks were also discovered.

The trial heard Worrell left racist stickers on the gate of the home of Susan Crofts and Mohammed Chowdhery and on a nearby lamppost. One sticker read: "Only inferior white women date outside their race. Be proud of your heritage."

Judge John Reddihough sentenced Worrell to six years for the terror offence and 15 months for the harassment, to run consecutively, giving a total of seven years and three months.

After the trial, Det Ch Supt David Buxton, of the Counter Terrorism Unit, said: "Literature found at his flat exposed his interest in creating explosives and even more concerning a number of items were recovered that could have been used to create these devices. We are thankful for his early arrest that has stopped Worrell from taking his interest further."

He added: "It is to my sadness that one family in particular have suffered at the hands of these extreme beliefs and the unforgivable actions of this man. No-one should be made to feel like an outsider in their own community because of their race or religion. I wish to thank them for their bravery during this investigation during what has been an extremely difficult time for them."

BBC

Neo-Nazi 'waged racist campaign against mixed-race couple'

A neo-Nazi from Grimsby waged a racist campaign against a couple because they were mixed-race, a court has heard.

Nathan Worrell, 35, is accused of hoarding bomb-making manuals and materials and waging a racist campaign against a mixed-race couple who lived nearby. Books and manuals containing "recipes" to make bombs and detonators using household items such as weed killer, lighter fluid and sugar were found by police at the defendant's flat, a jury at Grimsby Crown Court heard.

Also found were numerous boxes of matches, 171 match heads, two tubs of sodium chlorate weed killer and three bottles of lighter fluid. Fireworks, some of which had been tampered with, were also found in the flat, the jury was told. The prosecution alleges they had been tampered with in order to get at the gunpowder inside.

David Farrell QC, prosecuting, told the jury these items featured in the manuals and books found in the flat. The jury was also shown a video by the extreme far-right group Combat 18 showing how to prepare and make a bomb from household items, which was found in Worrell's flat.

A significant amount of racist and far-right propaganda was also found in the ground-floor flat by police, as well as membership cards of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, the November Ninth Society and the British People's Party.

Worrell admitted to police in interview that he was a white nationalist, Mr Farrell told the court. He also said Worrell signed his texts off as "88" - the sign for Adolf Hitler.

Earlier the court heard how racist stickers had been left on the gate and a nearby lamppost of the home of a mixed-race couple. The prosecution alleges that jobless Worrell was behind the "stickering" campaign, which lasted for a year. One sticker read: "Only inferior white women date outside their race. Be proud of your heritage. Don't be a race-mixing slut" while another from the Combat 18 group said: "It's our country. Let's win it back. Repatriation now."

Worrell is charged with possessing items for terrorism including manuals and equipment for making explosives and for racially aggravated public offences against a mixed-race couple, who cannot be named for legal reasons. He denies both charges. The trial continues.

Beverley Guardian

Nazi fiend 'a Muslim'

Jailed racist in Islam ploy

A cross-dressing Nazi racist has converted to Islam in jail because he's terrified of being killed in a revenge attack.

Hitler fanatic Martyn Gilleard, 31, was caged for 16 years last month for possessing 39,000 sick child porn images - and making four nail bombs. The pervert, who kept pictures of himself in women's underwear, planned to target mosques or places where black and Asian people gathered.

But now he has seen an imam at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire and says he has become a Muslim.

A prison source said: "Gilleard was kicked into touch by far-right parties for having child porn. Without their backing, he knew he wouldn't last five minutes in prison. So he reckoned changing his religion was the only way he'd avoid reprisals inside.

"But Gilleard turning to Islam is laughable. Just a few months ago he was a fully paid-up member of various racist groups and now he wants to start reading the Koran. He's making a mockery of Muslims and the lads will not stand for it."

Fork-lift truck driver Gilleard, of Goole, East Yorks, admitted at Leeds Crown Court 10 specimen child porn charges and was convicted of two terror charges.

The People

Man guilty over nail bombs plot

Part of Gilleard's mini-arsenal

A Nazi sympathiser who kept nail bombs under his bed has been convicted of three terrorism offences.

Martyn Gilleard, 31, of Goole, East Yorkshire, was a paid-up member of the National Front, the White Nationalist Party and the British People's Party. Police officers discovered four home-made nail bombs, as well as bullets and bladed weapons in his flat.

Prosecutors said Gilleard had written that he had wanted to "save" Britain from "multi-racial peril".

Gilleard was convicted of preparing for terrorist acts and possessing articles and collecting information for terrorist purposes. During the trial, he admitted having a collection of Nazi memorabilia, saying Nazism appealed to him because of the way the Nazis had "rebuilt" Germany.

Officers had found "potentially lethal bladed weapons", 34 bullets for a 2.2 calibre firearm and printouts from the internet about committing acts of terrorism, the court heard. These included instructions on how to make a bomb and how to kill someone with poison.

Explaining why he made the bombs, Gilleard said: "I'd had a couple of cans. I was just sat around bored. An idea popped up and I thought, 'Why not?' I thought, 'I've got pretty much what I need,' and I threw them together."

BBC

Terror Nazi's child abuse images

Neo-Nazi Martyn Gilleard has been found guilty of making bombs for a far-right terrorist campaign, after having previously admitted downloading thousands of images of child sexual abuse.

He wrote of starting a "racial war" and murdering Muslims. But Martyn Gilleard boasted that he was no "barstool nationalist". He wanted to put his white supremacist views into action. And when police raided the 31-year-old's flat, they found four home-made nail bombs, bullets, knives, swords, an axe and handcuffs with which - a jury has decided - he intended to launch his campaign of terror.

However, his comrades in various extremist groups were shocked to learn that this was not the limit of his criminal activities.

At the opening of his trial at Leeds Crown Court, Gilleard admitted 10 counts of child pornography offences. Officers had discovered more than 39,000 indecent images of children on his computer. Jurors considering the terror charges did not learn of this until they delivered their verdict.

'Potentially lethal'

Gilleard, a forklift truck driver from Goole, East Yorkshire, admitted to police and the court that he had held racist views. At the time of his arrest he was a paid-up member of the National Front, the White Nationalist Party and the British People's Party - all opposed to multiculturalism.

His computer password was Martyn1488 - the 14, according to prosecutor Andrew Edis QC, being a reference to the far-right's "14 words" slogan, "We must secure the existence of our race and the future for white children."

The 88, Mr Edis added, represented the eighth letter of the alphabet - an abbreviation for "Heil Hitler".

But Gilleard was not simply a passive crank, the court was told. In a notebook recovered by police, Gilleard wrote that the "time has come to stop the talk and start to act".

"Unless we the British right stop talking of racial war and take steps to make it happen, we will never get back that which has been stolen from us," he added. "I am so sick and tired of hearing nationalists talk of killing Muslims, of blowing up mosques, of fighting back, only to see these acts of resistance fail to appear."

In another note, he wrote that he wanted to see "reds" - left-wing activists - attacked with "lightning strikes" and "home-made grenades".

His comments were a chilling echo of far-right nail bomber David Copeland, jailed for life for murder after attacks targeting London's gay community and ethnic minorities in 1999.

By the time police raided his flat, Mr Edis said, Gilleard's preparations for this impending conflict had already been well under way. Officers had discovered the four nail bombs under a bed along with "potentially lethal bladed weapons", 34 bullets for a 2.2 calibre firearm, and printouts from the internet about committing acts of terrorism, Mr Edis told the court.

These had included instructions on how to make a bomb and how to poison someone, he added.

Gilleard had already pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possessing 34 cartridges of ammunition without holding a firearms certificate. But he denied that he had intended to hurt anyone with the nail bombs, arguing in court that he had only assembled them to give himself something to do.

When asked why he made the devices, he said: "I'd had a couple of cans. I was just sat around bored."

The jury, however, decided that he had more sinister purposes in mind.

Offensive weapon

After the raid on Wednesday 31 October 2007, Gilleard fled to the home of his half-brother in Dundee, Tayside. Police caught up with him after a three-day manhunt.

Detectives who interviewed his work colleagues were told that he had expressed racist views to them. The police also recovered a high-visibility jacket belonging to Gilleard that had been daubed with a hand-drawn swastika.

Born on 15 July 1976 in York, Martyn Paul Gilleard had a complicated upbringing. At the time of his birth his mother had two older children by her ex-husband. He became the adopted son of his mother's new partner after she remarried in 1978. He left school at 16 with GCSEs in history, English language and literature, but failed to complete a course at Northallerton College. In 2000 he began working for Howarth Timber in Breighton, East Yorkshire, as a forklift truck driver.

In 2002 - the same year he was fined £25 for possession of an offensive weapon - his partner gave birth to a son, but the couple split in 2006.

A prison cell, not the racial conflict of which he dreamed, now awaits him.

BBC

BNP London Election Campaign hit by conviction of police infiltrator on weapons charges

At the turn of the year officers from the Post Office Security Team based at London's main sorting office at Mount Pleasant intercepted a package from the USA which contained a Tazer gun, known as a stun gun, now in widening use by the Metropolitan Police Service. The addressee was a 23-year-old man, Ellis Hammond. The PO security team passed on the address and details of the contents of the package to the police in southeast London. It took them only minutes to realise that Hammond was a serving officer in the Police Community Safety unit based in their command area.

In no time they were at his family home detaining him and carrying out what was said to be a very thorough search.

They found the following:

• 1 CS tear gas canister.
• 1 police-style ASP retractable baton.
• 1 pair of Metropolitan Police issue Handcuffs.
• 1 knuckle duster.
• 8 combat knives.
• DVDs containing hate material.
• Various items of British National Party literature.
• Some obscene material.
• 25-30 mainly imported T-shirts from the USA bearing nazi and white power group symbols and hardline racist and nazi slogans.
• 4 BB guns.
• 1 replica AK47 assault rifle.
• 1 copy of The Turner Diaries, the US publication that has served as a blueprint for nazi terrorism in the USA, written by the late William Pearce, a close friend of the BNP who has played host to them at his National Alliance HQ in the USA and was guest of honour at a BNP annual meeting in east London some years ago.
• And finally, to top it off, a BNP membership card.

By sheer coincidence Hammond had left his mobile phone on a table in the canteen at the police station where he was stationed. A police officer turned it on hoping to find the identity of the owner but instead found a message from the BNP to Hammond. The officer acted with haste and sensibly reported it to one of his senior officers who were already in the picture about the Tazer gun.

So what do we and the police know about Hammond? In recent years he applied to join the Metropolitan Police Service. All applicants have to fill in a lengthy application form which includes the questions, have you ever been a member of the British National Party, are you currently a member of the British National Party or are you likely to join at any future date. Hammond answered no to all three questions. A positive answer to any of them would have debarred him from being a police or a prison officer. He failed the interview in any case and a while later decided to take the other route into the Police Service by first becoming a Police Community Support Officer for a year or so and then reapplying for the MPS. He was accepted as a PCSO after lying on his application form about his BNP membership.

It would appear that he was not active in any of the three local BNP branches in Greenwich, Bexley or Croydon, although members of Croydon branch had hinted for several years that they had connections with people serving in the emergency services and possibly the police.

We think that Hammond had been talent spotted by one or more senior BNP officers who were either ex-police or military and groomed to join up and play the long game, acting in spy parlance as a sleeper or deep mole.

When his Borough Commander had his staff search through Hammond's work record as a PCSO patrolling a beat that included the spot where Stephen Lawrence had been brutally killed by a white racist gang, they saw he had made a large number of stops and searches but only two were on black people, one being a truanting school child, and nobody ever complained about the way he treated them. He was seen by those who managed him to be an exemplary young officer, whose good record would ease the way for him to become a full police officer.

So far his arrest and the way the police were dealing with him was fine. They had even sent one of the replica weapons away for tests to see if it could be converted into a useable firearm. As he was not charged over that gun, we hope that it was deemed to be safe.

Then we felt some discomfort when informed that he was being allowed to resign before going to court rather than be sacked first.

We also discovered that last summer he had bought a lethal crossbow from the USA, a silent killing weapon and one of choice for many nazis across the world. This had not been found during the initial search of his home. We are now very eager to know if this was because it was missed or, as we believed, he had another cache of illegal weapons and material elsewhere. We were assured that a surveillance of his movements while he was on police bail before being charged was being stepped up as a result of our information about the crossbow.

We also heard that there were some differences between the Crown Prosecution Service and the officers dealing with the case over what form the charges against Hammond should take.

Last week he appeared at Bexley Magistrates' Court and pleaded guilty to two charges under the Firearms Act for possession and purchase of prohibited weapons relating to the Tazer gun and the CS gas spray, both of which carry prison sentences. One would have expected the magistrates to send him to the Crown Court with a view to custody of longer than six months, the limit of magistrates' powers, particularly as he had lied to join the Police Service and was a member of a banned organisation as far as the police and prison service go.

We were astonished to hear that the case had been dealt with there and then and that he got a conditional discharge for 12 months.

At the time of writing his name still appears on a police service website as a community beat officer.

By allowing him to resign from the police and advising him and his family that he should take that course, the CPS did not have reveal his background or his membership of the BNP to the magistrates. So it was unlikely the press would pick up the story and there would be no publicity. This is not the first time that serving police officers with far-right connections have been let down gently.

Inquiries to a BNP spokesperson about members illicitly joining the police service produced the response: "We have dozens of police members and that is just the ones who tell us what they do. Some of our members are quite senior, above inspector level".

Hammond's father was very grateful for how the officers were dealing with his son's case.

When spoken to, Ellis Hammond was a very different kettle of fish. He appeared to think he was someone important and said that he did not want any publicity as it would ruin his life. When the journalist tried to take the conversation further, Hammond responded: "I'm going to go now because I am getting really annoyed".

So what we have here is a nazi liar who has armed himself to the teeth and infiltrated one of the pillars of the criminal justice system, who says he cannot control his temper. Both the police and the CPS have gone down a strange path with this case that has allowed a potential terrorist to be turned loose on our streets. We wonder what the Director of Public Prosecutions thinks about this case. Was it dealt with by the local CPS office or the Special Case Unit that deals with all types of terrorist cases across the board, and what does Sir Ian Blair, the MPS Commissioner, think about letting people like Hammond off the hook? So much for confronting terrorism from wherever it comes.

When the criminal justice system screws up, it's the public that pays the price.

Searchlight

BNP activist took part in terror campaign

· South Africa bomb past of web expert revealed
· He says now: 'I was young. I made a mistake'

A white supremacist who planted a bomb at a mixed-race school in South Africa as part of a campaign of terror designed to destabilise the post-apartheid government has become a leading figure in the British National party's online operation.

Lambertus Nieuwhof, who now lives in Hereford, was given a suspended sentence after he and two other men tried to bomb the Calvary church school in Nelspruit in 1992. The bomb, which was made from 25kg of stolen explosives, failed to go off.

Now it has emerged that Mr Nieuwhof, who moved to the UK in 1994, has helped set up a number of BNP websites through his company Vidronic Online, as well as helping to establish a BNP branch near his home last November.

Researchers at the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight, who uncovered Mr Nieuwhof's terrorist past, say his appearance is part of a wider trend. "We know that several far right extremists have left South Africa and have put down roots among groups such as the BNP and pose a growing problem," said Gerry Gable of Searchlight.

At his home this week, Mr Nieuwhof admitted his role in the bomb plot. "I was a young man and impressionable. It was in the evening and we were trying to make a point because it was a mixed-race school, not hurt anybody." He said he had turned his back on violence and now believed in the "power of the pen and the ballot box".

"Everyone should be allowed a mistake," he added. Mr Nieuwhof was an activist in Eugene Terre' Blanche's rightwing Afrikaner Resistance Movement [AWB], which in the early 1990s engaged in a terror campaign aimed at provoking a race war. When the bomb he planted failed to go off one of his fellow AWB activists handed himself in, naming Mr Nieuwhof as one of his two accomplices. Mr Nieuwhof says he received a 12-month suspended sentence.

Mr Nieuwhof is not the first far-right South African to turn up on the political scene in the UK. He told the Guardian that he is close friends with another exile, Arthur Kemp, who has played a key role in several BNP campaigns since moving to the UK. Mr Kemp was linked to the murderer of the South African Communist party leader Chris Hani in 1993.

He was one of a number of far-right activists arrested after Hani's death, but was released without charge. However, information drawn from a list of names produced by Mr Kemp and said to have been passed to the wife of far-right South African MP Clive Derby Lewis was found at the home of Polish-born Janusz Walus, who was convicted of shooting Hani. At the trial Mr Kemp admitted producing a list of names but denied having knowingly supplied a "hitlist".

"He is a very good friend of mine," said Mr Neiuwhof yesterday.

Mr Nieuwhof's company is involved with a number of BNP projects online, including the website for Barking and Dagenham, the party's most successful branch, where the party has 11 councillors, and he is the administrator for the BNP's online members' forum. He is also named as the administration organiser for the Solidarity trade union set up by senior BNP members to protect the rights of "British" workers.

Guardian