London Nailbomber - Early Life

Early Life

Copeland was born in Isleworth, in the London Borough of Hounslow, his father an engineer, his mother a housewife. He lived for most of his childhood with his parents and two brothers in Yateley, Hampshire, attending Yateley School, where he obtained seven GCSEs before leaving in 1992. British journalist Nick Ryan writes that Copeland was a late developer and resented that he was small for his age. His testicles were under-developed and he had only had one girlfriend, using prostitutes when he was older in lieu of a sexual relationship. Ryan writes that, as a teenager, Copeland feared he was gay; when his parents sang along to the Flintstones theme on television—"we'll have a gay old time"—he reportedly believed they were sending him a message. As an older teenager, he began listening to heavy metal bands and earned himself the nickname "Mr. Angry." Ryan writes that the staff at his school have no recollection of him during this period. It was as if he had become invisible.

After his arrest in 1999, he told psychiatrists that he had started having sadistic dreams when he was about 12, including dreams or fantasies that he had been reincarnated as an SS officer with access to women as slaves. He left school to a series of failed jobs, reportedly blaming immigrants for the difficult job market. He became involved in petty crime, drinking, and drug abuse. His father was eventually able to get him a job as an engineer's assistant on the London Underground.