BNP terrorist plotter gets 11 years

Published on Saturday 16 January 2010 00:38

A BNP member who spent a decade creating a cache of weapons in a bedroom hideaway was jailed for 11 years today.

Bus driver Terence Gavan manufactured dangerous firearms and explosives at the home where he lived with his mother in Batley, West Yorkshire.

Police discovered 54 improvised explosive devices, including nail bombs and a booby-trapped cigarette packet, at the address, as well as 12 firearms.

Gavan also had a "strong hostility" towards immigrants and planned to target an address he believed was linked to the bomb attacks in London on 7 July, 2005.

The High Court in London heard that notebooks were found, in one of which was the slogan: "The patriot must always be ready to defend his country against enemies and their governments."

Gavan pleaded guilty to 22 charges, including collecting information useful for terrorism and possessing explosives and firearms.

Mr Justice Calvert-Smith told Gavan:

"There is no case in which such a long and persistent course of manufacture of both guns and explosives, combined with possession of material likely to be useful to those who commit terrorist acts, has ever been before a court before."