Nazi supporter guilty of terror charges

A Nazi sympathiser who kept nail bombs under his bed was today found guilty of terror offences.

Martyn Gilleard, 31, of Pool Court, Goole, East Yorkshire, was charged last November after police found the four home-made nail bombs, bladed weapons, bullets and documents about terrorism in his flat.

At the time of his arrest, Gilleard was a member of a number of far-right groups, including the National Front, the British People's Party and the White Nationalist Party.

The jury of 12 men took two-and-a-half hours to find Gilleard guilty of charges of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts and collecting information for terrorist purposes.

He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possessing 34 cartridges of ammunition without holding a firearms certificate.

During the six-day trial, the prosecution said Gilleard intended to use the weapons and documents found in his flat in terrorist acts to further his political cause.

Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting, told the jury that one document, in Gilleard's handwriting, suggested he wanted "to save this country from the multi-racial peril he believes it is in".

But Gilleard, who worked as a forklift truck driver at a timber yard, told the court the nail bombs were not intended for serious violence and said he made them when he was bored after drinking "a couple of cans".

In police interviews, he admitted sympathising with white supremacists and accepted that he was racist but had become less racist in recent times.

He told the court he had an interest in the Second World War and Nazism appealed to him because of the way the Nazis rebuilt Germany.