In April 1999, David Copeland carried out a three-week nail-bombing campaign in London, targeting Brixton's Electric Avenue, Brick Lane and the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho because of their associations with Black, Bangladeshi and LGBTQ+ communities respectively. The attacks injured around 140 people and killed three, including a pregnant woman, and were quickly identified as far-right terrorism rather than the work of the IRA or gang rivalries, marking one of Britain's most notorious hate-motivated bombing campaigns.

Copeland, a 22-year-old former British National Party and National Socialist Movement member, was caught after CCTV footage led a colleague to identify him just before the final bombing. He confessed readily to police, and his flat was found decorated with Nazi flags and press clippings on other bombings. Psychiatric assessment revealed he harboured deep-seated, delusional homophobic paranoia partly traced to a childhood incident involving his parents singing The Flintstones' theme tune, which he believed mocked his sexuality. Copeland was convicted of murder in 2000 and given six life sentences.