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At just 22 years of age, he prompted terror in April 1999 when he detonated three homemade nail bombs in London, one in Brixton Market, one in Brick Lane in the East End, and the final bomb at the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho. His bombs killed three people and injured 140.
Following the third nail bomb on Friday, 30th April 1999, Copeland was arrested by police and charged with murder. He confessed to the crimes, and attempted to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. His plea was not accepted – in part because of letters he had written to a woman named Patsy while on remand, in which he stated he had “fooled all the doctors” into believing he was mentally ill.