Arsenal of hatred: 11 years for BNP loner who built bombs in his attic

Armoury: Belts of live ammunition were discovered together with knives and riot police batons

Terrance Gavan's weapons cache which was discovered at the home where he lived with his mother in Batley, West Yorkshire

Jailed: Ex-BNP member Terence Gavan



Gavan admitted four counts of possession of prohibited weapons and six other terror charges

 
Hand grenade casings: Gavan told police he was fascinated with things 'that went bang'

This is the fearsome collection of guns, bombs and ammunition found at the home of a former British National Party activist fascinated by 'things that went bang'.

For a decade Terrance Gavan stockpiled an arsenal of home-made weapons, including nail and ball-bearing bombs, shotguns, pen guns and pistols.

The 39-year-old former neo-Nazi turned his home into a bomb and gun factory, leaving hand grenades, shotguns, knives and fireworks littered around his attic bedroom.

Gavan, a former soldier, had converted it into a workshop, complete with a metal lathe and bullet press which he kept alongside an extensive collection of weapons and military equipment, including knives, a samurai sword, camouflage clothing, guns and bullets.

The cache was discovered when anti-terror police searched the terraced house he shared with his mother in May last year after Gavan was linked to a website selling parts for weapons.

They discovered 54 homemade explosive devices which he had constructed over a decade, including 21 nail bombs, four bombs packed with ball bearings and 28 other devices, such as pipe-bombs and reactivated hand grenades.

One booby-trap bomb was even disguised as a packet of cigarettes.
Yesterday, the weapons-obsessed loner was jailed for 11 years at the Old Bailey.

The court heard that Gavan, who worked as a bus driver, had been making bombs since the age of ten and also made his own guns.

Police found ten firearms including two pen guns, three with silencers and two gas-fired pistols converted to fire live ammunition.

He had even tested a gun by firing it through a Yellow Pages book and at the bedroom walls of his home in Batley, West Yorkshire.
Also at the property were 40 knives, a crossbow and arrows, 120 bullets, air rifles, gun components, gunpowder and chemicals including hydrogen peroxide and weed killer.

Army bomb disposal experts spent six days searching and removing the explosives from his home.

They discovered that he had been making grenade launchers when officers stumbled upon the weapons factory.

Among his vast collection of books on war, he had manuals on booby traps, unconventional warfare techniques, improvised munitions and guerilla warfare operations.

Gavan also had a CD version of The Anarchist's Cookbook, a 1970s underground publication which contains instructions for making explosives.

When arrested, Gavan admitted he had an 'obsession with things that go bang' and said he had made the guns and bombs 'for the illicit thrill of owning them, to see if you can make them and then play with them'.
The court heard that as a boy he would test his own homemade explosives.

As a teenager he had a brief stint in the RAF and then went on to join the Royal Dragoons in 1988.

Gavan served with them for five years, during which he spent 280 days in military detention for nine separate disciplinary incidents.

In November 1993 he was discharged from the Army after being jailed for brandishing a loaded gun at a friend during a pub row while absent without leave.

Then, in 2007, he joined the BNP. Alongside letters and magazines from the BNP found in his bedroom, officers found a notebook of his rants against illegal immigrants.
In it he wrote: 'A patriot must be always be ready to defend his country from his enemies and their government-He also said all illegal immigrants should be sent home.

Earlier, Gavan admitted 22 charges relating to the manufacture and possession of improvised explosive devices, firearms and ammunition plus six offences under the Terrorism Act.

He also admitted the possession of a weapons manual. Sentencing him at the Old Bailey Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said: 'The explosives, firearms, ammunition and books and computer files were amassed by you over a period of ten years.

'This represents ten years of continual and continuous serious offending.'

Anti-terror Detective Chief Superintendent-David Buxton said: 'Gavan was an extremely dangerous and unpredictable individual,' who used his extensive knowledge to manufacture and accumulate devices capable of causing significant injury or harm.

'As such he posed a very clear risk to public safety.'






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