LONER Liam Lyburd cut himself off from reality and threw himself in to an illicit online world.

He had not been outside for months when his house was raided, existed on takeaway food paid for by other people's Paypal accounts and spent entire days playing computer games in his bedroom, interacting with other outsiders on the wild fringes of social media.

There, he would discuss plans to carry out a massacre, and praise US high school shooters and the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik.

He jettisoned the Liam Lyburd persona, preferring the name Felix Theodore Burns, later telling police he thought his real one was common.

That name was also associated with being a social outcast, a failure who was kicked off his maths and English course at Newcastle College after only five weeks, and someone who was unpopular on his estate, close to St James's Park.

When police discovered his fearsome cache of pipe bombs around 50 homes were evacuated.

Michelle Graham, 43, who lived on his street, Hamilton Place, said Lyburd would shoot birds, and she was scared to let her cat out the house. "He's been in and out of institutions since he was ten. He's a repeat offender and a loner," she said.

"No one round here liked him, he just stands there and stares at you. I have never even seen him with any friends.

"I have been here since 2000 and everyone round here keeps their kids away from him. He was always into BB guns and pellet guns, even a few years ago when he was about 11.

"He would shoot birds and pigeons, we would be scared to let the cat out."

Lyburd, who was obsessed with Heath Ledger's Joker from the Batman films, was also fascinated by two heavily armoured bank robbers who, in 1997, held off scores of armed police in a Los Angeles shoot-out.

The incident, which became known as the Hollywood Heist, ended with the two raiders dead, but only after one of the longest shoot-outs in recent US history.

Experts agreed Lyburd was not mentally ill, but he may have had a personality disorder. He bought Valium online and took six and a half tablets a day for his anxiety.

He went on a trip to New York with his mother and sister but did not leave the hotel, preferring to watch TV. He explained: "I don't like to be around people."

Lyburd struggled to answer questions when he was giving evidence, at times contorting himself in the witness box and bowing his head so his answers were inaudible.

He frequently smirked during the proceedings, admitting he felt embarrassed by what was being said about him.

He seemed unable to take in the seriousness of what was being discussed, and after he was arrested he admitted he enjoyed the thought of being in the news.

He claimed his messages about wanting to carry out a mass killing were just fantasy, and harmless internet trolling.

But it seemed the jury thought he was not bluffing when he wrote his Facebook profile message. It said: "I'm getting crazier every day. My fantasies are becoming a reality. There's no question I'm losing my mind. I'm going to snap very soon."