Officers from Scotland Yard's Flying Squad knocked on the door of a house in Sunnybank Road, Cove. Copeland opened the front door, rubbed his eyes and mumbled: "Yeah, they were all down to me. I did them on my own."
Any doubts the officers had disappeared when Copeland led them to his bedroom. Two red-and-black Nazi flags were hanging on a wall, alongside a macabre collage of photos and newspaper stories. The theme was bomb blasts.
Copeland was eager to give detectives a graphic account of how he had made and planted the three devices. But there was one issue he could not explain. Why?
He was born in Isleworth on May 15, 1976. Described as introverted but not aggressive by his classmates, Copeland studied at Yateley comprehensive and passed seven GSCEs. After leaving school at 16, Copeland drifted into a few jobs, experimented with drink and drugs and had a few minor brushes with the police.
After his arrest, Copeland claimed he had been having sadistic dreams from the age of 12. He had thought about killing his classmates and had wanted to be reincarnated as an SS officer. In May 1997, he joined the British National Party. A year later, Copeland joined the National Socialist Movement. In 1998, he was prescribed anti-depressants and told his GP he was "losing his mind." Nobody doubts Copeland was suffering from some form of mental illness, but the severity of the condition was contested.
Five psychiatrists concluded he had been a paranoid schizophrenic for several years. But this was challenged by prosecutors, who were under pressure not to concede to his pleas of guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Another consultant psychiatrist concluded that Copeland did have a personality disorder but it was not serious enough for him to avoid a murder charge.
With a primed bomb taped to the inside of a sports bag, Copeland had taken a taxi to Brixton on Saturday, April 17, 1999. He left the bag on the corner of Electric Avenue. It was spotted by nearby street traders, who wondered if it was a bomb.
Just as the police arrived at 5.25pm, the device exploded. Fifty people were injured.
Detectives began scanning CCTV coverage of Brixton. The following Saturday, a second explosion took place, this time in east London.
Copeland had left a bomb in a Head holdall in Hanbury Street but it was spotted by a member of the public who called the police. "He was dialling 999 from when the device went off," said a source. Thirteen people were injured.
Four days later, police identified a man in Brixton who had been carrying a Head sports bag. The CCTV images were given to the media on Thursday.
Copeland decided to bring forward his next attack by a day. The Admiral Duncan pub was full when walked in. He left at 6.05pm and heard the explosion as he walked back to his hotel. Three people died and four needed amputations. Twenty-six people suffered serious burns, another 53 were injured.
Eighty minutes before the bomb went off, Paul Mifsud rang a police hotline to say a work colleague resembled the man caught on camera.
By 9pm, officers had Copeland's and by midnight, they were planning a raid on his house.
