A NEO-Nazi planned to bomb his Newbury girlfriend’s neighbours in a national, racist terrorist campaign, a jury heard yesterday (Wednesday).
Forty-three-year-old Neil Lewington had a bomb factory in the bedroom of the home he shared with his parents in Church End Lane, Tilehurst, the Old Bailey jury in London was told.
Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, said officers found explosive chemicals and racist manuals including the Waffen SS UK Members’ Handbook and instructions on constructing devices.
His cache of hate literature and chemicals was discovered after his arrest for drunkenly abusing a female rail employee at Lowestoft train station in Suffolk on October 30 last year, it is claimed.
Yesterday his former girlfriend, mother-of-six Cynthia Little of Newbury, told the jury that she and Mr Lewington, who falsely claimed to have served as a paratrooper in the Falklands campaign, were leaving her home when two Asian neighbours walked past.
She added: “He said to me: ‘Did you see the dirty look they gave you?’ I said that I didn’t. He was going on about making bombs out of tennis balls. He asked me for their house number, which I didn’t know anyway.
“He said it would be easy to throw something or leave something there because nobody would see who did it. He said he used to be a skinhead and they used to go and beat up Pakistanis.”
Jurors also heard Mr Lewington was an alcoholic who lived on sickness benefit and stayed at home with his parents.
His mother Margaret Lewington said her son lived “in a world of his own.”
On his arrest an RAF bomb disposal expert examined the contents of his holdall which included plastic bags, each containing a digital clock with three batteries glued to the back.
Another plastic bag contained a large box of firelighters attached to modified filament igniters and booster tubes containing match head and firework powder.
Later searches of Mr Lewington's home revealed the Waffen SS handbook which contained drawings of electronics and chemical mixtures, jurors were told.
He also declared in a handwritten notebook that the “Waffen SS UK group will use incendiary and explosive devices throughout the UK at random until all non-British people as defined by blood are removed from our country. This is no joke.”
Mr Altman added: "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."
Mr Lewington denies engaging in preparation for acts of terrorism; two counts of possessing articles for purposes connected to an act of terrorism, two counts of possessing documents or records containing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, possession of explosive substances with intent; possession of explosives and collecting information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.