[1] The first bombing, on Saturday, 17 April 1999, was in Electric Avenue, Brixton, an area of south London with a large black population.

The bomb was made using explosives from fireworks, taped inside a sports bag, primed and left at Brixton Market.

[2] The second bomb, on the following Saturday, 24 April, was aimed at Brick Lane in the East End of London, which has a large Bangladeshi community.

[4] The third and final bomb was planted and detonated on the evening of Friday, 30 April at The Admiral Duncan pub on Old Compton Street in Soho, the heart of London's gay community.

[6] At the pub bombing in Soho, Andrea Dykes, 27, four months pregnant with her first child, died along with her friends and hosts for the evening, Nik Moore, 31, and John Light, 32, who was to be the baby's godfather.

[7] Following the Brixton bombing, officials initially emphasised that IRA involvement was unlikely and that it was more likely to be the work of right-wing terrorists following the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry that was released at the time, or a 'copycat' of Edgar Pearce.

It also ignited fears of racial tensions, particularly after the release of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry in February, and as Brixton was the scene of race riots in 1981.

[5] On Thursday, 29 April, CCTV footage from the Brixton attack was given wide publicity after an image of the suspected bomber was identified on it.

Paul Mifsud, a colleague of Copeland, recognised him from the footage and alerted the police about an hour and twenty minutes before the third bombing.

[13] Copeland was arrested that night once the police obtained his address, a rented room in Sunnybank Road, Cove, Hampshire.

Journalist Nick Ryan wrote that, as a teenager, Copeland feared he was homosexual; when his parents sang along to The Flintstones theme on television—"we'll have a gay old time"—he reportedly believed they were sending him a message.

His parents separated when he was aged 19, and his mother told lawyers and psychiatrists after the arrest that he was a "happy lad" and showed no sign of what was to come.

During this period Copeland read The Turner Diaries, and first learnt how to make bombs using fireworks with alarm clocks as timers after downloading the Anarchist Cookbook from the Internet.

Copeland left the BNP in 1998, regarding it as insufficiently hardline because it was not willing to engage in paramilitary action,[21] and joined the smaller National Socialist Movement, becoming its regional leader for Hampshire just weeks before the start of his bombing campaign.

During police interviews, he admitted holding neo-Nazi views and talked of his desire to spread fear and trigger a race war.

He told police, "My main intent was to spread fear, resentment and hatred throughout this country; it was to cause a racial war."

At the Old Bailey, Copeland's plea of guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility was not accepted by the prosecution or jury.

[26] In June 2014, Copeland attacked a fellow inmate at HM Prison Belmarsh with a shiv, an improvised weapon made from razor blades attached to a toothbrush handle.