Anti ULEZ Low Emission Zone Campaigner Jailed for 15 Years for Terrorism

Essay by Eric Worrall

The court found he was responsible for attacking a camera with a bomb which detonated and endangered lives.

Man jailed for 15 years over Ulez camera blast

A man who blew up a ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) camera in south-east London has been jailed for 15 years.

Kevin Rees, 63, detonated the explosives in the camera in Wellesley Avenue, Sidcup, at about 18:45 GMT on 6 December 2023.

The device damaged cars and houses up to 100m away, with shrapnel hitting outside of a child’s bedroom. Rees, of Harcourt Avenue, Sidcup, was convicted in January at Woolwich Crown Court of causing an explosion likely to endanger life.

During the trial, the retired electrical engineer told the jury he “strongly opposed” the Ulez scheme and the mayor of London, Lord Sadiq Khan.

The Metropolitan Police said Judge Anthony Bate, who delivered the sentence at the Old Bailey, ruled that the offence had a “terrorism connection”, resulting in a tougher sentence and stricter controls after Rees’s release.

“It was miraculous that nobody was killed or seriously injured in the large explosion caused by Rees,” said Det Ch Supt James Derham, who leads local policing in the Bexley area.

…
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6gr8j0n9g7ro

While we at WUWT detest ULEZ and the fake science used to justify punitive fees on vehicle use, we would never condone such extreme measures and law breaking.

A related Breitbart article indicates iron oxide and aluminium powder were found at Mr Rees home. If these are the materials Rees used in his device, he might have been trying to build a thermite charge, a high temperature chemical reaction which quietly produces a white hot puddle of molten steel, rather than a bomb. Nevertheless according to testimony the device detonated and endangered lives.

I urge anyone upset at ULEZ or similar outrages, please don’t resort to terrorism like Mr Rees. Obey the law and vote the bums out of office when you next have the opportunity to do so. However imperfect, Britain is a democracy, and lawful means still exist for ordinary people to force changes to government policy.

Update (EW): The following is footage of the bomb blast. There were heaps of people around. What Rees did was wildly irresponsible.

5 11 votes

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49 Comments

atticman

October 4, 2026 10:20 am

Anyone detonating explosives in a public place deserves what he got. But it’s a pity that real terrorists rarely get such a stiff sentence.

SxyxS

Reply to atticman

October 4, 2026 12:12 pm

That’s actually standard diplomatic policy of the Anglo-Saxon realm ; Gladio and the Empire State building bombing included.
Just cultural political habits;
and If he’d blown up a 1000 people he’d be president of Syria with a rough past by now.

But the reason he fully deserves this punishment is that he used explosives instead of minimizing potential colleteral damage via gun .
Shooting cams will become a sport in near future anyway and he could have started that trend.

-7

Steve Bunten

Reply to SxyxS

October 4, 2026 6:15 pm

Except he lives in Britain where owning any kind of pistol or rifle is nearly impossible. He should have figured out how to use the weapon of choice by the muslims in the UK, a machete, to destroy the camera.

atticman

Reply to Steve Bunten

October 5, 2026 1:08 am

I’d have thought that cutting down the post wuith oxy-acetylene equipment would have been smarter. Plus doing it in the middle of the night, not at a quarter to seven in the evening!

Nicholas Schroeder

October 4, 2026 11:07 am

Kirk.

Graemethecat

October 4, 2026 11:25 am

He should have changed his name to Mohammed before the trial. He would have received perhaps a couple of weeks in prison.

Mr.

Reply to Graemethecat

October 4, 2026 3:09 pm

and then also changed his gender so he she could do the time in the womens prison.

atticman

Reply to Mr.

October 5, 2026 1:09 am

..but he’d then have to wear a burka.

strativarius

October 4, 2026 11:50 am

Dissent will not be tolerated and more often than not the process is the punishment.

The Fairford 5 alleged terrorists were given instant bail. Contrast that with Danny Tommo. He ripped an illegal migrant dinghy to prevent it being used again.

He is languishing in jail on remand until March 2027; no bail for him. The migrants are now living it up for free at our expense – they are the criminals and they have more rights than we do….

NB The boat was empty

JohnC

Reply to strativarius

October 4, 2026 12:18 pm

The U.K. terrorism legislation allows for people to be detained for up to 14 days without charge. The RAF Fairford incident appears to be the exception rather than the rule, which makes me suspicious of what actually happened or who may have intervened to allow the five suspects to be bailed.

I cannot comment on Danny Tommo as I am not aware of the case.
Kevin Rees fulfilled the criteria for a charge of terrorism under the 2000 Terrorism Act and has quite rightly been sentenced.

strativarius

Reply to JohnC

October 4, 2026 12:40 pm

Fairford is completely bizarre.

It wasn’t a megatonne warhead, but enough to destroy the revenue generator. People have had enough, trouble is coming to Gosport/Portsmouth tonight.

Police were earlier seen mobilising in Portsmouth and Gosport areas
https://www.gbnews.com/news/migrant-crisis-anti-migrant-protesters-mobilising-hampshire-channel-dinghy-south-coast

Priority one – import the new voters

Scissor

Reply to strativarius

October 4, 2026 1:43 pm

They are burning down the polling places in France.

They used to say that Beirut was the Paris of the Middle East. I suppose today, Paris is the Beirut of Europe.

Oldseadog

Reply to strativarius

October 5, 2026 2:28 am

“The boat was empty.”

To be strictly accurate, someone from the rescue party was on board doing something to the engine, and if Danny had waited a while the boat would have been taken to the store in/near Dover and joined the hundreds more. It would not have been used again.

But agree with the rest of your post.

strativarius

Reply to Oldseadog

October 5, 2026 3:16 am

He jumped on to it…

John Hultquist

October 4, 2026 12:37 pm

“retired electrical engineer”
Maybe he did poorly in chemistry classes.

strativarius

Reply to John Hultquist

October 4, 2026 12:56 pm

Shocking.

Paul Hurley

October 4, 2026 1:34 pm

Yeah, making and detonating a bomb in public is a singularly dangerous kind of stupid.

Bruce Cobb

October 4, 2026 1:43 pm

“Attacked a camera with a bomb”. “Terrorist connection”. Really? Clearly, the intent was to disable/destroy the camera, not blow up a neighborhood. He was wrong, of course to destroy public property. And he badly misjudged the power of his “bomb”. But the judge in this case went bananas, giving him 15 years. Probably because he knew he could get away with it.

Eric Worrall

Author

Reply to Bruce Cobb

October 4, 2026 2:14 pm

The point is he did blow up the neighbourhood, embedding a chunk of metal into someone’s bedroom wall. It may not have been the intended effect of the device, I suspect he was trying to build a non-explosive thermite charge, but his actions led to serious risk to life.

And even a thermite charge would have caused a significant risk to life – having white hot molten steel dripping down on random passers by is not a safe thing to do.

I understand people’s anger – but this is not the right way to address it.

Mr.

Reply to Eric Worrall

October 4, 2026 3:31 pm

his actions led to serious risk to life

Case in point –
it will be interesting to see what the (possible) court outcome might be regarding the tragic event in Newcastle (AU) 2 days ago where an 18-year old driver was allegedly hooning in his car for his passengers and the onlookers in the street where a crowd of football fans were gathered, and he lost control and mowed down 10 people, leaving a child on life support and quite a few critically injured.

On the one hand, one of these perps on a politically-motivated mission deliberately set about to cause damage, but mistook the power of his ‘weapon’, whereas the other perp did not deliberately set out to cause damage, but seriously mistook / over-estimated his prowess at performative driving.

So, intended but easily repairable public & some private property damage on the one hand, and unintended but moronically-inflicted human injury and (hopefully not) loss of life on the other.

Who’d be a judge?

oeman50

Reply to Eric Worrall

October 5, 2026 4:28 am

I do not understand how a thermite charge can explode unless one puts it in a pressure vessel to contain the gases and heat generated, which build up and then release in an instant. To do that would be on purpose.

Izaak Walton

October 4, 2026 1:57 pm

“While we at WUWT detest ULEZ”
I mean who wants kids to be able to breath freely and have healthy lungs.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1l1r1zne1ro
Not to mention the fact that deaths linked to air pollution have fallen by
40% in London thanks to the ULEZ.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/24/deaths-london-air-pollution-fallen-imperial-college

Again what a terrible thing it is not to have to die from air-pollution. Certainly that
is something that all people should “detest”

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Eric Worrall

Author

Reply to Izaak Walton

October 4, 2026 2:18 pm

Yep I seriously trust Guardian statistics – not.

ULEZ is causing misery for poor people who can’t afford to live next to where they work, who are forced to risk London’s dangerous public transport system.

And before you unload some BS about London not being dangerous, I spent years commuting into London, and had to face down muggers multiple times during this period.

It wasn’t so bad for me, I’m a really big guy who grew up in a bad place, so lets just say I had the means to cause muggers to re-assess their life choices. But a woman I used to know got raped as well as robbed. Driving your own vehicle is the best safety vulnerable people especially women can achieve in such circumstances, other than not being there at all.

Izaak Walton

Reply to Eric Worrall

October 4, 2026 3:14 pm

Air pollutions is also causing misery for people who suffer from asthma, lung disease etc. Not to mention the misery caused by watching your child die simply because somebody thinks they have the right to drive a 4×4 down your street.

And if you don’t like the Guardian’s statistics how about this study from the University of Bath
https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/londons-low-emission-zones-save-lives-and-money-new-study-finds/
The key findings are

18.5% reduction in sick leave following LEZ implementation
6.8% drop in the incidence of health problems
10.2% decrease in respiratory issues
Reported improvements in happiness, life satisfaction, and reduced anxiety.
Annual public health savings of over £37 million, driven by fewer respiratory illnesses and reduced job absenteeism thanks to low emission zones.

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Eric Worrall

Author

Reply to Izaak Walton

October 4, 2026 3:47 pm

I’m asthmatic Izaak. And I made the choice after 9/11 and 7/7 to drive to London. Asthma is a condition which can be controlled. Being priced out of affordable transport, or forced to share a locked box with muggers, is less controllable.

Izaak Walton

Reply to Eric Worrall

October 4, 2026 4:15 pm

Last year in the UK, there were over 1400 deaths due to asthma and about 500 homicides. People are more at risk of dying from asthma than being mugged in the tube (which is vastly safer than travelling in the US) and the current Mayor of London is trying to make life safer for those who have asthma. The best way to control asthma is to stop air pollution. Which also reduces the health costs considerably and lets people live longer happier lives.

-11

Eric Worrall

Author

Reply to Izaak Walton

October 4, 2026 4:20 pm

How many of those 1400 deaths were people who were on the brink of dying anyway? Its like Covid – everything becomes a Covid death if you test positive.

And the most effective way to protect people from being mugged is to let people drive instead of forcing them to use public transport.

Like I said Asthma is a controllable condition unless you are about to die anyway, or you are one of those unlucky people whose condition is so severe you are in danger of dying from every attack. Being mugged and traumatised not so much.

Izaak Walton

Reply to Eric Worrall

October 4, 2026 8:42 pm

Being mugged is as much of a controllable condition as Asthma — just pay the congestion charge when you want to drive into London or buy an EV. Being mugged is rarely so severe that people are in danger of dying from every attack. Every time I have been mugged I have handed over my money and walked off unharmed. I admit that I have been lucky but I am not so stupid as to value money over wellbeing.

Any public health measure will result in winners and losers. The question is whether the risks of being mugged on the tube (roughly 13 muggings per million km of travel) is outweighed by the risks of people dying from air pollution. And since more police could be hired from the health savings that would also reduce the risks of muggings as well as saving lives.

-5

Eric Worrall

Author

Reply to Izaak Walton

October 5, 2026 12:51 am

What about if you are too poor to afford an EV or pay the congestion charge Izaak? What if all you can afford is a £300 barely legal banger, like my first vehicle in the UK?

Oh sorry, silly question – if you guys cared about poor people you wouldn’t have supported green surcharges on power bills.

John XB

Reply to Izaak Walton

October 5, 2026 9:07 am

Good heavens! To be mugged once may be regarded as a misfortune. To be mugged more than once looks like carelessness.

By the by: if you are mugged on the Tube, you can’t walk off! You are on a moving train in a tunnel.

Crime on the Tube 2024/25

Theft of personal property – 10 069 reports.

Violence – 5 036 reports

Robbery – 1 560 reports

Sexual offences – 900

John XB

Reply to Eric Worrall

October 5, 2026 8:57 am

The trick that is used is to count acute respiratory illness deaths, measure environmental air quality where those deaths occurred then produce a report saying: “up to” 400 deaths can be “linked” to air quality. The “link” is usually “proved” by everyone’s favourite, computer modelling.

What the reports don’t say is those deaths would have happened anyway but may have occurred earlier because of “nasty, bad thing” in the air. Hours, days, weeks, months earlier? Impossible to tell.

Leon de Boer

Reply to Izaak Walton

October 5, 2026 2:44 am

ROFL … now that is funny

What lets all mourn imaginary deaths?

John XB

Reply to Izaak Walton

October 5, 2026 8:52 am

I expect those 1 400 asthma deaths were on the London Underground where levels of iron oxide and other metallic particles (from wheel, brake and rail wear), mineral dust, organic materials such as skin and hair, dust stirred up by trains are four times higher than surface roadside levels and five times higher than urban background levels.

These are all far more aggressive irritants for any respiratory disease than what comes out of a car exhaust.

2024/25 there were 2.216 billion Tube passenger journeys – 3.33 million average per day.

Cleaning up the air quality of the London Underground should be far more of a priority than surface air – wouldn’t you say? Many people use the Tube to commute so a very high accumulative exposure.

leefor

Reply to Izaak Walton

October 4, 2026 9:15 pm

From your ref – “ULEZ, the strictest policy of its kind globally, delivered even greater reductions—NO₂ down 21% and PM10 down 15% estimated by comparing Central London to other areas outside Greater London, before and after ULEZ was introduced.”

Comparing different areas is not the same as “like for like”? 😉

MarkW

Reply to Izaak Walton

October 4, 2026 7:01 pm

To bad ULEZ does none of the wonderful things you attribute to it, and was never designed to do so.

Izaak Walton

Reply to MarkW

October 4, 2026 11:14 pm

What do you think it was designed to do and where is the evidence that the “wonderful” things that were attributed by others (in peer reviewed journals) are wrong?

Graemethecat

Reply to Izaak Walton

October 5, 2026 1:00 am

How do you know ULEZ has saved the lives of asthmatics? Answer: you don’t.

PS: Models don’t count.

Leon de Boer

Reply to Izaak Walton

October 5, 2026 2:43 am

You do get that is garbage called attribution statistics 🙂

Annual Mortality: Air pollution contributes to roughly 28,000 to 36,000 premature deaths annually in the UK, killing over 500 people every week.
Life Expectancy: Toxic air shortens average life expectancy across the UK by roughly 1.8 years.
Economic Cost: Healthcare and lost productivity expenses range between £27 billion and £50 billion each year.
Vulnerable Populations: Deprived and low-income communities experience disproportionately higher exposure to pollutant hotspots

Like to see scientific proof and autopsies to prove any of that crap. You have to love the claim it shortens peoples lives by 1.8 years can I get that with a +- error of days and minutes please 🙂

It’s like all those medical junk reports like butter is bad for you, but next week it’s good for you.

Todays medical garbage story is coffee is good for you and going to save your life, stayed tuned for next weeks medical rubbish.

John XB

Reply to Izaak Walton

October 5, 2026 8:36 am

The evidence presented to London Authority by its own investigators is that ULEZ has made no difference to air quality anywhere.

It is a scam to collect money. If air quality were the real issue, non-compliant vehicles would be banned – as is the case in Paris.

But as long as you pay a fee, you can take your vehicle into the zone and “pollute” as much as you want.

Edward Katz

October 4, 2026 2:29 pm

This is exactly how such goofballs have to be dealt with. Too many of them are foolish enough to believe that the general public supports their types of activism, but the reality is that they’re just considered to be loose cannons more likely to do harm than good.

Eric Worrall

Author

Reply to Edward Katz

October 4, 2026 2:42 pm

Yep – absurdly over the top.

Bob

October 4, 2026 2:52 pm

I agree that blowing the camera up was over board however if I were on the jury I would never vote guilty of terrorism. Prosecutors and judges have been might fast and loose with what they charge people with. Prosecutors and judges need to be brought into line, there’s nothing special about them.

MarkW

Reply to Bob

October 4, 2026 7:03 pm

I suspect the jury was carefully selected to deliver the verdict the government wanted.

MCourtney

Reply to Bob

October 5, 2026 2:55 am

The UK is not like the USA. We don’t expect deadly weapons to be let off all over the place.
Bombs are bad.
Bombs for a political purpose are terrorism.
Hard to see any reason why this ruling was wrong. He endangered lives for his ideology.

For a counter example, a guy did in a ULEZ camera with an acetylene torch and got friend a few grand for the criminal damage and some community order to pay back to society. Not a terrorist offence.

Sidcup ULEZ explosion: Vandal who cut down camera sentenced | News Shopper

emhmailmaccom

October 4, 2026 9:54 pm

This Imperial College paper surveying the levels of traffic pollution in London from 1998 negated the whole need for ULEZ at all. It was excellent news for London and steadfastly ignored by politicians who wanted to impose traffic control. Story tip

https://edmhdotme.wpcomstaging.com/transport-and-health-in-london/

atticman

Reply to emhmailmaccom

October 5, 2026 1:15 am

Let’s face it: ULEZ is simply another form of taxation; that’s why it was really introduced.

AleaJactaEst

October 5, 2026 1:16 am

“Britain is a democracy, and lawful means still exist for ordinary people to force changes to government policy”

“If voting made any meaningful change, They wouldn’t let us do it….”

Eric Worrall

Author

Reply to AleaJactaEst

October 5, 2026 3:08 am

Even an imperfect democracy is better than the alternative, because that alternative to voting is violent revolution.

When you look at the history of violent revolutions, you get a sense of how lucky the USA was to have someone like George Washington at the head of the Continental Army.

Men who can seize absolute power then surrender it to the people are rare. Usually there is some excuse why the relinquishment of absolute power must be delayed.

George Washington, General Cincinnatus of Rome (in whose honour the city of Cincinnati is named).

South America got really lucky, two such men in one century – President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, who suspended the constitution to defeat the communes FARC terrorists in 2002, then relinquished power to parliament as soon as the crisis was over, and Peru’s Alberto Fujimori, who crushed the Shining Path communists in Peru in 1992, then restored democracy as soon as the job was done.

Against these names are all the strong men over the years who promised peace and freedom, then instead brought war and slavery.

John XB

October 5, 2026 8:30 am

The “Blade Runners” carried out a successful campaign to disable ULEZ cameras without explosive or endangering life or damage to private property.

”Obey the law and vote the bums out of office when you next have the opportunity to do so. However imperfect, Britain is a democracy, and lawful means still exist for ordinary people to force changes to government policy.”

A democracy? How naïve.

The Pakistani London mayor voted in to Office repeatedly by a plurality of Muslims who now outnumber non-Muslims 2:1.

We no longer have democracy, we have the sectarian politics of the Third World.

Recently in order to parachute in a replacement PM for the ghastly Starmer creature, a Labour MP resigned so the mayor of Manchester could resign stand for Parliament in a Labour stronghold. He won, was given Party leadership and so became our new PM.

This left a vacancy for mayor of Manchester. The new Reform UK Party candidate was tipped to win it. The Labour Government passed urgent legislation to change the voting system in Manchester from First Past the Post to proportional representation so voters to other Parties could vote “tactically” to keep Reform UK out and deliver a Labour win – which is what happened.

Reform UK was pledged a large donation from a British entrepreneur in crypto currency. Cue urgent legislation to stop crypto currency donation. His donation in £ was blocked because he was non-resident on the UK, so he moved to the UK. Cue new rule – in such cases the person must be resident for 12 months from the end of the year of repatriation before they can donate.

Reform UK have received two donations of £36 million each. Cue a Bill in Parliament limiting single donations to £100 000. Too late because the donations have been made. Well no, not really because the legislation when enacted will be applied retrospectively (contrary to British tradition) to before the donations were made so they would have to be returned.

This is to prevent Reform UK – leading the polls – from winning next election.

British democracy? Don’t make me giggle. We haven’t had that since 1997 and that constitutional vandal Tony Blair became PM and started rigging the system.