ANGRY young man Richard Barnes was a secret rebel with an evil cause.

Clean-cut, hard-working and seemingly ambitious, he earned decent money as an office equipment fitter and his future looked bright.

But beneath the veneer of respectability, Barnes was a Jekyll and Hyde character who was easily led and he developed a hatred of black and Asian people as well as left-wing politics.

A lonely bachelor with few friends, he fell under the spell of far-right extremists and attended National Front meetings in Birmingham.

It was an association which led him to indulge in a twisted orgy of violence that terrified Birmingham and led to the callous murder of an innocent housewife who Barnes picked at random.

In melodramatic style on his 21st birthday in March 1981, Barnes – whose hatred was stoked by riots that had erupted around the country – set off to fulfil dreams of becoming a hero for the fascist cause.

The military fanatic had hoarded weapons and uniforms – which he wore to parties – and turned himself in to a one-man army with a crossbow, knives, guns and Second World War battledress to act out his chilling campaign of terror. He seemed an unlikely killer.

The only blemish on an otherwise spotless record was a conviction for drink-driving at the age of 19, which brought him a year-long driving ban.

On Wednesday, March 24, hell-bent on turning the streets into a bloodbath, Barnes set off from his home in Sheldon in a green Vauxhall Viva. He was armed with a sniper’s crossbow – chosen because it would allow him to kill silently.

Karamat Hussain, aged 26, was the first victim.

As he was walking close to the junction of Floyer Road and Charles Road in Small Heath, Barnes opened the passenger door and aimed at his target’s heart.

Police later said that it was only because of a faulty firing mechanism that he skewed the shot. Instead of hitting Mr Hussain’s heart, the 15-inch bolt entered his neck and speared through his back.

Doctors said it had missed his jugular vein by only a few millimetres.

He then tried to mow down two Asian girls in his car but, as he later described in his statement to police: “They ran across my path and I only managed to hit the shopping bag of one of them.”

Barnes’ reign of terror continued when he pounced on 60-year-old Richard Coates who was eating lunch in the car park at the Tivoli shopping centre in Yardley.

The second victim was pistol-whipped only for Barnes to be chased of by two youths who saw the commotion and went to help.

But Barnes was soon back on his trail of terror – threatening 44-year-old Christopher Rudman who had stopped to eat his lunch on Bickenhill Lane near the NEC.

Mr Rudman was threatened with the air pistol and a razor and was so terrified that he drove Barnes to London in his Renault before he was told to stop at Hendon tube station and warned that his family would be killed if he went to police.