Kevin Rees, 63, is on trial accused of bombing a ULEZ camera on Willersley Avenue, London, on December 6, 2023. The blast left homes rattled and a car damaged, narrowly missing a passenger.
Bomb Made From Metal Cylinder Packed With Explosives
At Woolwich Crown Court, Prosecutor Simon Denison KC revealed the device was a metal cylinder packed with explosive powder. After another activist sawed down the camera, Rees allegedly drove from his home, planted the bomb, lit the fuse, then sped off.
The explosion was so powerful it shook houses and sent shrapnel flying. A passing car’s door was ripped apart, and a nearby parked van was damaged. Even a child’s bedroom window 28 metres away was smashed, blinds torn down, and debris scattered inside — luckily, no one was in the room.
Metal fragments flew over 100 metres, damaging a house on Shuttle Close. “No one was injured by sheer luck,” Mr Denison said. “Someone could have been seriously hurt.”
Rees Denies Charges Amid Mounting Evidence
Rees, appearing via video link from home, denies causing an explosion likely to endanger life or property. Witnesses saw a man light a cylinder, place it on the ground, then flee. The blast was described as a “massive bang” that jolted onlookers forward.
Forensics found traces of “black powder,” a common firework explosive. Following his arrest on December 18 while dropping his wife at Sidcup Station, Rees reportedly asked: “Has this got something to do with the ULEZ Facebook sites I was using?”
Police raided his home, uncovering aluminium powder and iron oxide — ingredients for homemade thermite explosives — plus a 2011 price list for chemicals linked to bomb-making. Officers also seized three homemade stun guns; Rees denies weapons charges.
Anti-ULEZ Campaigner With Explosive Obsession
Mr Denison detailed Rees’ fervent social media opposition to the ULEZ scheme. He ran a Facebook group called “Ulez Camaras” that tracked camera installations and encouraged vandalism. Rees warned followers to “be really careful” of police monitoring these groups.
Evidence showed coded chatter about “trees” and “pruning” — slang for cutting down camera poles. In November 2023, Rees boasted about making and planting bombs: “That thing I made on the pole is mad,” he wrote. A friend called him “the Terminator,” to which Rees replied, “The Exterminator.”
Photos deleted from his phone captured the camera’s installation and social media celebrating the blast. CCTV footage shows the bomber, though Rees denies it is him.
“The defendant denies that he was the person who caused the explosion,” said Mr Denison.
