‘Nazi’ hid nail bombs under bed, court hears

| Monday, 16 June 2008 Source: Yorkshire Post

A racist with links to white supremacist organisations made nail bombs in his Yorkshire home to use in terrorism to further his political cause, a court heard today.

Martyn Gilleard, 31, wanted to save the country from "multi-racial peril", a jury at Leeds Crown Court was told.

Gilleard, of Pool Court, Goole, is charged with engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts, possessing articles for terrorist purposes and collecting information for terrorist purposes. He denies the charges.

Opening the case for the prosecution, Andrew Edis QC told the jury of 12 men that police found four home-made nail bombs under a bed in Gilleard's flat.

Officers also found "potentially lethal bladed weapons", 34 bullets for a 2.2 calibre firearm and documents printed from the internet about committing acts of terrorism, including how to make a bomb and how to poison someone to death.

Gilleard pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possessing 34 cartridges of ammunition without holding a firearms certificate, the court heard.

Other information discovered revealed that he was "a man of white supremacist groupings" and described his agenda with the National Socialists, or Nazis.

Mr Edis described the contents of one document written by Gilleard.
He said: "He had come to decide that it was time to stop talking and start acting.

"There had been too much bar-stool nationalism and not enough courageous action to save this country from the multi-racial peril he believes it is in."

Mr Edis said Gilleard had admitted in police interviews that he sympathised with white supremacists and accepted that he was a racist but said he had become less racist recently.

He said he made the nail bombs after drinking to see if he could and did not think they would work.

He told police he did not intend to harm anybody.

Mr Edis told the jury they had to decide whether this was the case or whether Gilleard intended to use the bombs and weapons in terrorist acts.

He told them the legal definition of terrorism was to advance a political or religious cause by the use of threat or serious violence and said it was the prosecution's case that Gilleard had the weapons and documents "for use in connection with furthering his political cause".

Mr Edis continued: "It is pretty clear that Martyn Gilleard is a man who admires Nazism."

He said Gilleard's usual password was Martyn1488, where the number 14 was a reference to a 14-word phrase coined by David Lane, the founder of an American white supremacist paramilitary organisation: "We must secure the existence of our race and the future for white children".

The use of 88 relates to the letter H being the eighth letter of the alphabet, and HH meaning Heil Hitler.

Police also found a drawing of a Union flag with a swastika on it and the 14 words written out.

The trial continues.