A Cambridge man has been convicted of a nationwide letter bombing campaign. Miles Cooper, a caretaker who worked at Cherry Hinton Junior School, targeted several organisations he considered to be “government affiliated” with glass and nail bombs, in what he claims was a protest against a surveillance obsessed society. He now faces an indeterminate prison sentence.

Cooper was found guilty of eight counts of causing bodily injury by means of an explosive substance, two counts of using an explosive substance with intent to disable, and a charge of making an explosive substance at Oxford Crown Court on September 27.

Among the targeted organisations were Capita, which runs London’s congestion charging system, LCG Forensics, in Oxfordshire, and the DVLA offices in Swansea, where three people were hurt by a glass bomb on February 7. His terror campaign has cost the organisations involved around £80,000.

Cooper selected these targets because he considered them to have links to an “over intrusive” and “authoritarian” government. He has expressed hope that his actions will not undermine the efforts of civil liberties groups such as Liberty and NO2ID.

There is considerable evidence that Cooper was planning further attacks, and he remains a key suspect in the investigation into a letter bomb sent to the headquarters of Cambridge’s Labour Party in August 2006. Police found an extensive arsenal of deadly weapons at his home in Cherry Hinton, including a machete, rifles and lethal chemicals. Toxic chemicals known to be used by terrorists in firebombs were also discovered. These included the chemicals HMTD and TATP, both of which have been used in a large number of suicide attacks across the world.

Judge Julian Hall, sentencing, told Cooper: “You are a terrorist. Anyone who tries through violence to change the public will is a terrorist, and that is precisely what you did. If what you did was rational it is evil. If it was irrational, then that is all the more frightening.”

If what you did was rational it is evil. If it was irrational, then that is all the more frightening

Cooper’s defence team, led by Michael Wolkind, said little throughout the four day trial since Cooper admitted both to making and sending the devices. “He is crucially aware that harming innocent individuals is unjustified under any circumstance,” said Mr Wolkind on September 28. “We don’t consider him a significant risk. No-one is entitled to change his views; that is the freedom we enjoy in this society, but this defendant is intelligent and young enough to change his response to laws he doesn’t approve of.”

The investigation, which was described by Thames Valley Police as “very fast-moving and complex”, involved forces Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command.
Cooper’s arrest on February 19 came just one month after the first incident, but police have not revealed how they caught Cooper, who left no trace of DNA in any of the bombs he sent having used gloves, masks and tweezers while constructing them.

Detective Superintendent George Turner of Thames Valley Police said, “I consider Miles Cooper to be an extremely dangerous individual. If he hadn’t been caught when he was, his campaign would have continued. We still don’t know what his end game was.”

Jessica King