Two teenage boys have been convicted of conspiracy to murder after plotting a Columbine-inspired shooting at their school.
The teenagers had planned to ‘shoot up’ their school in Northallerton, North Yorkshire.
The judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, told the pair they will be sentenced at a later date when she has considered reports about them both.
She told the jury: ‘Nobody will be in any doubt as to the gravity of their conduct and the plans they have made.’
She said it was an ‘unusual case’ but told the jury the ‘welfare of young people’ was the primary concern of the sentencing system.
Two teenage boys have been convicted of conspiracy to murder at Leeds Crown Court after plotting a Columbine-inspired shooting at their school.
Summing up the case for the prosecution on Monday, Paul Greaney QC said that their plans amounted to ‘real-life intent’ rather than ‘childish fantasy’.
During his speech at Leeds Crown Court, he claimed that the older of the two defendants had ‘revelled’ in the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, which saw 12 students and a teacher killed.
Mr Greaney claimed that the teenagers who were responsible for that attack, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, had left clues as to what was to come, such as internet searches for weaponry and, on Harris’s part, a journal ‘espousing a far right-wing ideology’.
Parallels were drawn with evidence that was found in relation to the two friends, including a diary written by the older of the pair which reflected a ‘homicidal state of mind’.
Questioning why the boys had not come up to the witness box, Mr Greaney told jurors: ‘It is obvious that the prosecution case against each of the defendants is sufficiently strong to call for an answer from them, and there is no sensible reason for them not to give evidence other than that they cannot answer the prosecution’s case.’
Discussing what he would have asked the older of the two boys, he said: ‘Why did you write in your diary that you wanted to carry out a school shooting if that’s not what you intended?
‘Why did you write about being ‘godlike’ if that’s not how you see yourself?
‘Why, we would have asked, did you tell the police that you were disgusted by the Columbine massacre when actually you revelled in it?’
The court had previously heard how the younger of the two defendants had said during a police interview that, in contrast to his friend, he had no genuine intent to carry out a shooting
The court had previously heard how the younger of the two defendants had said during a police interview that, in contrast to his friend, he had no genuine intent to carry out a shooting.
The boy also claimed that he had informed another classmate and a teacher in a bid to stop his co-accused proceeding with the plan.
However, Mr Greaney told the jury how the same boy had made ‘clear and unvarnished confessions’ that he was central to the alleged plot, such as telling a girl details of the ‘secret’ in September 2017.
During his speech at Leeds Crown Court, Paul Greaney QC, claimed that the older of the two defendants had ‘revelled’ in the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, which saw 12 students and a teacher killed
‘Perhaps it would be argued on behalf of (the younger defendant) that he would not have talked about it if the plan was real, but history is loaded with examples of such loose talk to people who did not believe it to be real or did not know what to do,’ the prosecutor said.
He added: ‘If what (the boy) is saying is true and he wanted it all to come out, why did he describe it as a ‘secret’?’
The defendants, who were 14 at the time of the alleged offences, denied a joint charge of conspiracy to murder, as well as alternative charges of intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence and encouraging or assisting an offence believing it would be committed.
The older boy denied unlawful wounding and aggravated burglary.