Former soldier who ran bedroom bomb factory jailed for 11 years

12 April 2012

An ex-soldier who ran a bomb and arms factory from his bedroom was jailed for 11 years at the Old Bailey today.

Over 10 years Terence Gavan, 39, stockpiled 54 improvised bombs, mostly packed with nails and ball bearings. Gavan, a BNP member was described as "a lone operator with an obsession with guns and explosives."

One of the bombs was a "victim-operated" booby trap concealed in a cigarette packet. In the locked attic bedroom of his mother's terraced home he stored more than 30 weapons, many of them he had constructed himself.

They included a samurai sword, shot guns, pen guns and pistols and 120 rounds of ammunition and around 40 knives and a crossbow.

When counter terrorist police raided his house in May last year they also found handbooks on booby traps and improvised munitions, including the Anarchist Cookbook.

Gavan's case seemed to echo Nazi nailbomber David Copeland who detonated his homemade devices in Brick Lane, Brixton and Soho in a racist and homophobic campaign.

But in sentencing Gavan, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith accepted he had no firm plan of attack or intention to use the weapons or explosives.

But Gavan's notebook indicated hostility towards immigrants, the judge said. Gavan had written: "A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against enemies."

Gavan, a bus driver of Batley, West Yorkshire, had pleaded guilty to 22 charges, including six under the Terrorism Act, at Woolwich crown court last November.

He served five years in the Royal Dragoon Guards and ran up nine disciplinary convictions which led to 209 days in military custody. He was discharged in April 1993.

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