‘Tennis ball bomb’ fanatic faces life in prison

TENNIS ball bomber Neil Lewington is facing a life sentence after being convicted of planning a racist terror campaign.

The white supremacist and neo-Nazi was found guilty yesterday at the Old Bailey of preparing for acts of terrorism.

He was also found guilty of having explosives with intent to endanger life and five other terror and explosives charges.

The 43-year-old unemployed electrician of Tilehurst, Reading, Berkshire, was remanded in custody for sentencing on September 8.

Lewington had wanted to be a notorious race hate bomber and idealised Soho nail bomber David Copeland and Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh.

He was arrested by chance on a train after travelling from Reading, through London, to Lowestoft, Suffolk, with two firebombs in a holdall in October, last year.

Police found he had turned his bedroom in his parents’ house into a bomb factory full of detonators, explosives, weedkiller and racist material.

It also contained three tennis balls and plans to turn them into shrapnel bombs which he said he could throw at the home of an Asian family.

A notebook had been entitled “Waffen SS UK members’ handbook” with a logbook of drawings of electronics and chemical devices.

Lewington wrote a chilling “mission statement” in which he boasted of two-man hit squads bombing Britain at random.

His conviction comes after police counter-terrorism chiefs boosted their resources to monitor a surge in the number of suspected far-right plotters.

The Crown Prosecution Service also warned it would prosecute anyone breaking terror laws whatever their ethnic background.

The court was told the loner, who had been drinking, was arrested after he insulted a woman conductor on the train and urinated on the platform at Lowestoft.

His hold-all bag was found to be have two firebombs which would have exploded when primed.

In his wallet were hand-written notes entitled “device 1” and “device 2” with headings including “date”, “place”, “target”, “weather” and “detonated?”.

Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, said: “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.

“In addition to his extreme views on race and ethnicity, the defendant had an unhealthy interest in bombers as well as bombings.”