T WO teenagers accused of planning to carry out a massacre at a North Yorkshire school have declined to appear in the witness box, a court heard.

The 15-year-old boys are on trial at Leeds Crown Court accused of plotting to murder classmates and teachers at their school in Northallerton.

The jury was told that both boys had opted not to take to the stand and answer questions from court.

The judge reminded the jury that the defendants were entitled to remain silent, which was not an admission of guilt, but said the jury would be permitted to draw “adverse inferences” from the fact they had chosen not to.

Reading out a statement of agreed facts, the defence counsel said in 1,511 text messages sent between the older teenager and a girl between May 13 and September 22, there were no references to Eric Harris, Columbine, bombs, Natural Born Killers, napalm, Nazis or other terms associated with the alleged plot.

There was only one reference to a gun, when she told him she had found the keys to her father’s gun cabinet and he replied: “Oh my God. Did you? I’m really happy,” then asked if she had taken the guns out.

Analysis of Instagram chat logs from September 21 between the older teenager and the girl showed that these terms were not mentioned in 3,531 messages sent between them.

Character references for the younger of the two were read out, including from the executive principal of the teenager’s school, who said he was a “polite” student, “showing the courtesy expected to students at school”, adding: “he has been described as helpful in lessons, with good manners towards others”.

Another character reference for the same boy, written by parents of one of his friends, described him as a “polite and well-behaved boy” who had always looked out for their child at primary school and looked after his siblings.

The boy’s uncle said when a baby was born into the family, the teenager had showed “care and concern and a degree of tenderness” unprompted and did not recall him ever resorting to physical or verbal outbursts.

Both boys have denied conspiring or encouraging each other to carry out a mass murder of pupils and teachers at a school in Northallerton between March and October 29 last year.

The older of the two boys is also charged with two further counts of aggravated burglary and unlawful wounding. He denies both charges.

The trial continues on Monday.