Two teenage boys from North Yorkshire were found guilty Thursday of conspiracy to murder after a plot to carry out a school massacre was averted by police.
The two 15-year-olds had devised a plot to shoot and kill students and teachers at a school in Northallerton in what would have been a carbon-copy of a 1999 massacre at the Columbine High School in Colorado, the United States, when 13 people were killed.
A jury at Leeds Crown Court heard evidence that the boys had hero-worshipped the killers at the Colorado massacre.
The mothers of the two boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, wept as the jury delivered their verdict. A judge will impose sentences on the two boys in July.
In a hideout in an abandoned shack, police found petrol and a bag of screws and also discovered the boys had downloaded a bomb-making manual from the internet.
Their potentially deadly plot only came to light when one of the boys told a schoolgirl they were planning to carry out a shooting, and when she asked if it was a joke, he told her: "No. No one innocent will die. We promise." The girl told a teacher and the plot was averted.
Head of Counter Terrorism Policing for North East England, Detective Superintendent Martin Snowden, said later: "This is a deeply unsettling case and the cause of significant concern for all associated with it. The impact of it has been felt profoundly by the staff at the school, its pupils and their parents, and indeed the local community."
"Young people in particular are vulnerable to external influences, both in the real world and online, which can shape their views and influence their actions. While these influences are very difficult to control, it's important we're alive to the display of attitudes or behaviour which concern us and have the confidence to report them. On this occasion, those who came forward may ultimately have saved lives," he said.
