A 63-year-old retired domestic appliance service engineer, Kevin Rees, has told a court that he had no involvement in the explosion of an ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) camera in Sidcup, south-east London, in December 2023.
Rees was arrested by counter-terrorism police after a low-sophistication improvised explosive device (IED) damaged the camera on Willersley Avenue. He told Woolwich Crown Court that he believed he was being detained because of his participation in “anti-Ulez” Facebook groups, and not because of the explosion itself.
“I assumed it was just the so-called Facebook police,” Rees told the jury on Wednesday, explaining that he had heard of people being arrested for making “bad or inappropriate comments” on social media. “The thing is, I didn’t actually do anything wrong,” he added.
When asked directly by his defence counsel, Simon Ray, if he was responsible for the explosion, Rees replied: “No, I’m not. Not something I would do.”
The court heard that the camera had already been damaged earlier that day by a man named Stephen Harwood-Stamper, who later pleaded guilty to criminal damage. Harwood-Stamper had cut the camera pole down, and someone else then caused the camera to explode when it was already on the ground.
Rees, who lives in Harcourt Avenue in Sidcup, told the jurors that he had never spoken to or heard of Harwood-Stamper, and first learned of the explosion through a local news Facebook group.
When he was arrested 12 days later, Rees made reference to the explosion and asked officers if his arrest had “something to do with the anti-Ulez site”.
“There was only one explosion that was on the news and that was the one in Sidcup,” Rees told the jury.
Rees also denied that three “stun guns” found at his home following his arrest were actually such devices, explaining that he had made them because he enjoyed “tinkering about with electrical devices” due to his professional background.
The trial is ongoing.
