Copeland, 24, had been a member of the far-Right British National Party and a unit leader in the Nazi group the National Socialist Movement.

Clearly no one asked for his name, he was not recorded and he wasn't on any computer

Gerry Gable Searchlight

An Old Bailey court heard on Friday that Copeland sympathised with extremist Aryan beliefs that black, Asian and gay people should not be allowed to live, and this was why he targeted the specific communities.

But neither MI5 or police Special Branch - who are supposed to monitor extreme groups - had heard of him before he was arrested and charged with bombing Brixton, Brick Lane and Soho - killing three and injuring 129.

After the trial, Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner Alan Fry said the police force had worked tirelessly and with tremendous dedication to identify and arrest the bomber.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "We will monitor, we do monitor but there is a limit and Copeland's involvement with the right-wing was intermittent and we have not got a record of everybody who has ever belonged to the British National Party."

Unusually, said BBC correspondent Graeme McLagan, Judge Mr Michael Hyam did not commend officers who worked on the case.

Copeland wanted a race war

There is embarrassment that information from a reliable source naming Copeland as the prime suspect was given to special branch before the Soho bombing, but not passed to the anti-terrorist police before Copeland was arrested, added Mr McLagan.

Scotland Yard acknowledges that the information would have helped in the hunt for the killer, but points out that the information would not have stopped the bombing of Soho's Admiral Duncan pub.

When the information was received, Copeland had already left his Hampshire home and was staying in a London hotel.

BNP rally

But Gerry Gable, from the organisation Searchlight, which monitors the movements of far right and neo-Nazi groups, believes the police should have known about Copeland.

He also believes that until the bombings, the police and intelligence services had underestimated the threat posed by the extreme right.

Copeland with ex-BNP party leader John Tyndall

He said: "Today it is very well understood, but I don't think it was understood in the two weeks of the [bombing] campaign.

"He was active, he attended one annual rally and he was actually involved in street violence in the East End when the leader of the British National Party at the time was assaulted by anti-fascists.

Anti-Nazi activists pictured Copeland alongside ex-BNP leader John Tyndall three years ago at the BNP rally.

Following the violence in the East End police actually talked to Copeland, said Mr Gable.

"Clearly no one asked for his name, he was not recorded and he wasn't on any computer," he added.

Mother still loves killer

Copeland, of Farnborough, Hampshire was tried for murder after a jury rejected his plea to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to paranoid schizophrenia.

He was found guilty of murdering Andrea Dykes, 27, who was pregnant, and friends John Light, 32 and Nik Moore, 31, from Essex, and given six life sentences.

Copeland's bedroom was draped in Nazi flags

Copeland's mother Caroline said after the trial that she still loved her son despite his crimes.

But the care assistant said she did not expect any of her son's victims to forgive him.

She said: "How can they forgive him? I cannot forgive him and I am his mum. I love him but I cannot forgive him."