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Author: Sonia Gable | Date: March 2007
A gunman found guilty of three counts of attempted murder said he was a member of the BNP. John Laidlaw (pictured) went on a shooting spree in Islington, north London, last May, the Old Bailey heard last month. He had previously threatened to “kill all black people”.
As the jury were considering their verdict in the Robert Cottage and David Jackson trial, Judge Samuel Wiggs warned Laidlaw that he faced an indeterminate jail sentence for the protection of the public. He was also found guilty of two charges of possessing a firearm.
The first victim, Abu Kamara, was returning home after a game of badminton when his friend’s sports bag accidentally brushed against Laidlaw walking in the opposite direction. Laidlaw, who has a string of previous convictions for grievous bodily harm, burglary, robbery and possessing knives, calmly pulled out a gun and shot the father of three from Sierra Leone. The bullet is still lodged near his spinal column, where it is too dangerous to remove.
Half an hour later Laidlaw, 24, fired at least two shots at Evans Baptiste at Finsbury Park Tube station, accidentally hitting 26-year-old Emma Sheridan. Baptiste, 22, had been chasing Laidlaw after recognising him as the man who had attacked him with a hammer earlier in the year.
Three weeks before the shootings, Laidlaw, from Holloway, north London, had been convicted of a racist attack on a black motorist. When he was arrested he behaved violently and was “foaming at the mouth” according to a police document.
“In the presence and hearing of the black female jailer the defendant made racist comments and remarks, stating he was a member of the BNP and that he hated all black people,” the document says. He also stated that he was going to kill all black people.
As Laidlaw never stood as a BNP candidate the BNP may try to deny any link, though had not done so as Searchlight went to press. Nevertheless, that a vicious and violent racist criminal should gravitate towards the BNP and boast of it is indicative of the nature of the fascist party.
© Searchlight Magazine 2007