A Nazi-obsessed teenager drew up a shopping list of bomb ingredients and wrote out a detailed plan for his Columbine-style school massacre, the Old Bailey heard today (Thurs).
The 16-year-old college student planned to shoot dead teachers and unarmed police before taking hostages in the deadly attack, it is said. He allegedly wrote a plan to kill students with explosives and chain the exits shut, ending his note with the words “good luck” and a smiley face.
The teenager, now 17 who cannot be named because of his age, is accused of plotting terrorist attacks on his former school in Loughborough, Leicestershire, as well as his college, the council offices, Loughborough university, and even the local Reel cinema.
He had been stockpiling knives, air guns, petrol and pipe bombs, and explosives in his bedroom in preparation for the attack prior to his arrest in February, the court heard.
Prosecutor Gareth Patterson today showed jurors the teen’s handwritten notes on “Operation New Columbine” from a Che Guevara book daubed with EDL and Nazi slogans.
“Get up early, pack stuff, check I have everything”, he wrote in a note entitled “how to carry the op”. “Check everything before I go on to school grounds, enter K block and chain both exits shut. Eliminate any instant threats.”
The boy then named a teacher he had a grudge against as his first target to kill, it is said. “Throw explosives at the rest of the class, finish off survivors”, he continued. “Enter each classroom, taking out teachers first and use explosives to eliminate most of the students, eg. pipe bombs, CO2 bombs, petrol bombs. Kill any unarmed police, then either take any survivors hostage to talk to people for a while or end.”
The boy, an EDL member who idolised founder Tommy Robinson and wanted Hitler to rule Britain, had drawn up a list of potential targets, including the teachers and fellow pupils he disliked, it is said. When his home was searched, police initially discovered a cache of guns and knifes hidden under piles of clothes on his bedroom floor, along with books on infamous massacres and Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
After his initial arrest, his mother and grandmother, who he lived with, cleared out his bedroom uncovering several scraps of paper with alleged bomb recipes on them. In a fresh search two days later, police found the Che Guevara notebook which included his alleged shopping list of bomb parts and recipes for making homemade explosives.
One list of ingredients included potassium nitrate, sulphur powder, and sodium chloride along with weights and prices. Another page in the book included a sketch of a trench coat-wearing person with indicators where knives, bombs, and air guns could be concealed.
Officers also found nine glass bottles with dusters in the necks, which the prosecution claims were the basis of petrol bombs. The jury has already been shown videos of the defendant and two pals testing improvised petrol bombs at the back of a local leisure centre.
Mr Patterson showed them a sketch of a badge, which included a skull, a red cross, a Swastika, and a hammer and sickle. He said it included the Latin words for: “In wearing this badge, I will conquer.”
Jurors have also heard he had notes on “Operation New Columbine”, and had a book called Spree Killers in his bedroom, detailing infamous massacres including the 1999 high school attack, the Virginia Tech massacre and the Dunblane School murders.
The teenager, from Loughborough, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, denies possessing an article for a purpose connected with terrorism, possessing a document likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, and possessing parts for an improvised explosive. He has pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon.
The trial continues.