"To his neighbours, Kevin Rees did not seem like an extremist. The shy 63-year-old lived on a tree-lined street in suburban Sidcup, in Bexley, south-east London. He appeared to be enjoying retirement after a career mending dishwashers and other domestic appliances. He's a quiet character I've lived opposite him for 10 years and never really spoken to him, says Sam, who declined to give her full name. Behind the lace curtains, Rees was much more abrasive, at least online."
"Under the user name the Exterminator he ranted about London's mayor, Sadiq Khan, and the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) which in 2023 was expanded to the capital's outer borough, including Bexley. It was only when Rees's online ire went beyond keyboard skirmishes and crossed over into real life violence that his neighbours realised they had an extremist in their midst. Rees began tinkering with homemade weapons and explosive materials that he kept in his loft."
Kevin Rees, a 63-year-old retired domestic-appliance repairer in Sidcup, Bexley, engaged in online anti-Ulez rhetoric under the username the Exterminator. Online anger escalated into violent action when Rees built explosive devices and stored materials in his loft. On 6 December 2023 at 6.45pm he detonated a homemade bomb that destroyed a Ulez camera on Willersley Avenue, four minutes' drive from his home. Shrapnel travelled about 100 metres, dented a van, burst a car tyre, splintered a bedroom window frame and damaged a child's wendy house. A jury at Woolwich crown court found the explosion likely to endanger life.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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