The father of a pregnant woman who was killed when a nail bomb went off inside a gay bar in London’s West End in 1999 says he will never forgive her killer.
Andrea Dykes, 27, was on a night out with her husband when a device planted inside the Admiral Duncan exploded, killing her and their two friends, John Light, 32, and Nik Moore, 31 – the four were from Colchester, Essex.
Phil Maddock, Andrea’s father, said: “The pain still feels as raw today as it did 25 years ago.”
David Copeland was given six life sentences in June 2000 for three counts of murder and three counts of causing explosions in London in order to endanger life.
The explosion at the Admiral Duncan took place as Soho was filling up with revellers for a busy Friday night on 30 April.
At 18:38 BST, the bomb containing 1,500 nails and hidden inside a rucksack went off.
As well as killing three people, the blast injured 79 others, some of them very seriously.
Fighting back tears, Mr Maddock recalled getting the phone call from the Metropolitan Police telling him his daughter was among the dead.
“I just dropped the phone and disappeared into a black hole. It was a very difficult time,” he said.
The nail bomb in the Admiral Duncan was the third device planted by Copeland, a self-confessed racist and homophobe who was 22 at the time of the attacks.
Two other explosions had injured 61 people in Brixton, south London, and Brick Lane, east London, in the weeks beforehand.
Despite the pain he still feels over his daughter’s murder, Mr Maddock said: “I don’t hate [Copeland], I feel sorry for him.
“To go through life thinking like that is so sad and at the same time he’s harmed a whole lot of other people for the sake of his hatred and that’s inexcusable.”
When Copeland was arrested, police discovered a Nazi flag hanging on his bedroom wall along with newspaper clippings of his attacks.
Mr Maddock said he was fearful about the growing number of far-right groups in existence today, adding their presence was worrying and “dangerous”.
He said he believed Copeland had been indoctrinated into hating others.
Mr Maddock no longer travels to London for the annual memorial service for those who died and were injured.
He does, however, take comfort from the event continuing and said it had been nice to meet others and see so many people cared when he had attended in the past.
This year, Mr Maddock will spend the anniversary at home in quiet reflection.
He said he may play some Abba as that was the show Andrea and her friends had been due to see in London on the night they were killed.
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