- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday June 13 2000 02.34 BST
The Nazi sympathiser, who killed three people and injured 129 during his bomb campaign last spring, said he felt "exhilarated" by the media coverage of his devastation and "cheated" when other groups began to claim responsibility, said the doctor, Peter Dean.
Copeland, 24, whom he examined four times after his arrest in May last year, told him: "I planned this. I have been dreaming about it for ages - doing what I did, getting caught, going to court - it is my destiny."
Dr Dean said: "He said he felt exhilarated by the newspapers when he saw the photograph of where he lived.
"He was looking forward to going to court. There was no suggestion of any concern or stress. He was exceptionally calm."
The surgeon added that he could find no evidence that Copeland, who has admitted causing explosions in Soho, Brick Lane, and Brixton, had delusions, hallucinations or thought disorders. "There was no sign at the time that he was suffering from a mental illness," he added.
But he had recommended that Copeland, who told him he had stopped taking his medication for panic attacks a month earlier, be kept under observation while in police custody.
"There was no suggestion of any suicide intent. He maintained an exceptional degree of calmness ... It was almost surprising, the matter-of-factness with which he approached the whole thing."
The jury also heard from Paul Mifsud, a colleague of Copeland on the Jubilee Line extension, and the man who identified him to police.
Mr Mifsud, who described working with Copeland as "five months of total anger about everything", spoke of his disbelief when someone in a cafe showed him a newspaper photograph of the Brixton bomber and asked if it was Mungo - the name by which he called Copeland.
The engineer took the paper to Copeland's father, Stephen Copeland. "I said, 'Doesn't it look like David?' He replied: 'Yes, it does look a bit like him, but he has not got a white hat.' I just let it go."
But after work he felt compelled to look at the newspaper pictures once more. When he got in, he told his wife, and she told him to ring the police.
Mr Mifsud also spoke of his colleague's anger with his parents, whom the nailbomber claimed were convinced he was gay, and his fascination with serial killing.
Under cross-examination, he said they had talked about Brixton, Brick Lane, the killing of Jill Dando, and a high school shooting in the US.
"I think I said how terrible it was, what was going on in the world - shooting and the bombings. He said: 'Great, isn't it - all these things happening'."
Copeland pleads not guilty to murder on the grounds of diminished reponsibility.
The trial continues.
