Children convicted of planning Columbine-style massacre using bombs and guns at Yorkshire school
Lead plotter, aged 14 at the time, espoused far-right wing ideology in diary and idolised school shooter Dylan Klebold
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A pair of teenage boys have been convicted for planning a Columbine-style massacre using bombs and guns at their Yorkshire school.
The defendants were just 14 when they mounted the plot in Northallerton, drawing up a “hit list” of targets including fellow students and teachers.
Prosecutors said the slightly older boy “idolised” Eric Harris, who massacred 13 victims with accomplice Dylan Klebold at Columbine High School in Colorado before turning a gun on himself.
Police uncovered a diary where he espoused “far-right wing ideology” and discussed his motivations for wanting to carry out an attack.
The first page read: “If this is found I have committed one of the worst atrocities in British history or I killed myself.”
Leeds Crown Court heard how the teenagers researched weapons online and downloaded a bomb-making manual, while the older boy attempted to gain access to a store of seven shotguns at his girlfriend’s house.
“F***, I hate my school. I will obliterate it. I will kill everyone,” he wrote in October. “I have a plan, a great f***ing plan.”
The diary said the boy would “lay low” in Catterick before murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents and stealing her father’s guns, the court heard.
“I’ll make some explosives then well find a way back to Northallerton and well begin our assault on that f****** school,” it continued. “I just want to kill every single one of you f***ers.
“Everyone is filthy and deserve to be shot, including me. I’ll play the role of god and decide who a let live and die. Humans are a vile species which needs to die out.”
Officers later searching his “hideout” discovered a rucksack filled with screws, boards, and a flammable liquid that prosecutors said were components for an explosive device.
The plot surfaced when his younger accomplice told a schoolgirl that they were planning to carry out a shooting via Snapchat.
When she asked if he was joking, he responded: “No. No one innocent will die. We promise.”
The next day, he made what the prosecution described as “clear and unvarnished” confessions, firstly to a teacher, and then to police officers.
Giving evidence, the teacher said the boy claimed his targets were “infecting the gene pool” and that he and his friend were performing a “service to society”.
Police spoke to both plotters separately at home after the incident, when one confirmed that they “planned to go into school with a firearm in order to get rid of those who had wronged them” but the older boy denied everything.
Prosecutors said North Yorkshire Police did “not respond adequately” to the threat until a specialist counter-terror team took over the investigation a month later.
Assistant chief constable Phil Cain said: “We fully accept that standards of investigation and our initial responses, to some of the incidents, did not meet those standards that are expected of us and what we strive to deliver. These were unusual circumstances, and once the seriousness of the allegations were realised, we turned to the North East Counter Terrorism officers for their specialist assistance and support.
“A senior officer has since reviewed the issues and addressed these with a number of officers and staff. We will continue to asses our policies and procedures to ensure our officers provide the best possible service to the public.”
The older plotter’s girlfriend said he spoke of a plan to murder her parents and run away together, so that he could become a “natural born killer”.
The schoolgirl, who started dating the plotter in June 2017, claimed he described her as “his Dylan Klebold” and encouraged her to give him access to her father's shotguns.
After her parents banned the pair from seeing each other, the teenager went to her house dressed like Eric Harris and wearing a t-shirt daubed with a threat to her parents.
He fled carrying a large knife that was later found with the word “Love” written on the blade.
The teenager, described as “devious and primitive” by the girl's mother, was cleared of one count of aggravated burglary but convicted of unlawful wounding after carving his name into his then-girlfriend's lower back.
The boys, now 15, were convicted of conspiracy to murder and will be sentenced in July.
They sat motionless alongside their tearful mothers as the verdicts were read out at Leeds Crown Court.
Both had denied conspiracy to murder, with the younger suspect claiming his friend “was serious about the mass killing”, whereas he was not, but the older one maintaining that “no-one was serious about any of it“.
Detective Superintendent Martin Snowden, head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, called the case “deeply unsettling”.
“These boys demonstrated a very real interest in violence and had both expressed a desire to act out their fascinations,” he added. “Disturbingly, they had gone beyond the fantasy and had begun to take very real steps towards making it a reality…we’re grateful that people were concerned enough to report the boys behaviour, a fuller picture of which ultimately led to their arrest.”
DS Snowden warned that young people were “vulnerable to external influences” both in the real world and online and urged people to remain aware and report any concerning activity.
In a joint statement, North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire County Council said the local community had been deeply affected.
“We want to reassure the school community and the wider public that the health and wellbeing of young people and their families will remain at the top of our agenda,” they added. “Safeguarding of children, young people and their families is a priority for all agencies."
Additional reporting by PA