LONDON PUB BOMBING REMEMBERED

Today, April 30, marks the tenth anniversary of the tragic 1999 bombing of the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho, the heart of London’s gay district.

The attack was one of three, each aimed at stirring up ethnic and homophobic tensions. The Admiral Duncan was apparently the first gay pub chosen from an alphabetical list by bomber David Copeland.

Copeland, a former British National Party member and Neo-Nazi, was arrested at his flat where police found Nazi flags and a poster of Adolf Hitler in the middle of a collage of photos of bomb victims. He is currently serving six life sentences in Broadmoor Hospital at Crowthorne.

The bomb was detonated at 6.37pm, causing chaos in the pub which was busy thanks to a Bank holiday.

Eye witness Jean Pierre Trevor remembers the scene: “There were people lying everywhere. Those who were around were putting thermal blankets over them. A lot of them had severe burns, so we were putting water and ice cubes on their skin.”

Over eighty people were injured and three people died, including Nik Moorem, John Light and Andrea Dykes who was four months pregnant at the time. Today, there is a memorial and a plaque in the bar to commemorate those injured and killed in the attack.