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Alcoholic loner who abused his parents' trust to live racist dream
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent15 Jul 2009
Neo-fascist Neil Lewington used his honest, hard working parents as unwitting stooges to fund his intended bombing campaign.
For virtually his entire adult life he lived at home without a job and rent-free. His neat bedroom was a no-go zone for them and he put Plasticine across the keyhole so they could not look in.
Here was his laboratory and bomb production line as well as an archive of Right-wing and racist propaganda - Margaret and Christopher Lewington did not have a clue they were harbouring a would-be terrorist.
Lewington left school at 15 with no qualifications but his interest in electronics took him into a series of related jobs with different firms.
A brief attempt to live away from home in his twenties ended when he could no longer afford it and he moved back into his parents' three-bedroom semi in Tilehurst, Reading.
His growing alcoholism rendered him unemployable and he lived off benefits. With no rent to pay almost all his income went on alcohol and mobile phone bills for the internet.
"He didn't realise he was an alcoholic," said his mother. "It was as if he was in a world of his own."
He would link up with racist sites such as Combat 18, Blood and Honour and the British People's Party. His return home and refusal to pay rent so angered his father they have not exchanged a word for 12 years.
