- guardian.co.uk, Saturday July 1 2000 01.39 BST
"We, least of all, understand," said his mother Caroline Woolard, 47. "Something was going on in his head, and he must have been so lost and unhappy to have done as he's done."
"Our lives have been destroyed, his life has been destroyed, and he's destroyed all those other people's lives."
She added: "I can't forgive him. But I can't change it and, at the end of the day, he's my son, my baby. I wish I knew why he'd done this but I don't think we'll ever know. I don't even think he knows himself."
Copeland's father Stephen, 50, said: "He's aware he's killed people but when I said to him 'Do you know what you've done', he said 'Yes. But it wasn't on my mind to cause that kind of thing.'
"I said 'For Christ's sake, explosives tend to have that effect on people.' And he replied 'I know. I'm sorry. But it was an accidental byproduct of what I was trying to say.' Exactly what that was, I just don't know."
