Jury asked whether plot to kill students in Northallerton was fantasy

The trial into an alleged plot by two boys last year to carry out a mass atrocity at a school in North Yorkshire, continued at Leeds Crown Court today (Monday, May 21.)

Two teenagers, who were aged 14 at the time of the alleged offences and so cannot be named, both deny the charges of conspiring, or encouraging each other to massacre students and teachers at a school in North Yorkshire.

At Leeds Crown Court today, Paul Greaney QC, prosecuting, told the jury that despite the defendants sitting within metres of the witness stand in court for several days, they had chosen not to be questioned under oath in court, while 14-year-old students from the school, had testified in court.

He added: “Each has chosen not to give evidence because they simply have no answer to the questions and would not stand to scrutiny of cross-examination.

“There’s simply no sensible reason for the defendants to not give evidence, other than they have no answer to the prosecution case. None that would stand up to scrutiny.”

He said had the boys taken to the witness stand, he would have asked them, why the older teen wrote in his diary he wanted to carry out a school shooting if that was not what he intended, why did he write about being "Godlike" if that wasn't how he saw himself and "why did you lie to the police that your drawing was of the "ultimate soldier" when it was clear it was a diagram of the ultimate school shooter?"

He said diary entries from the older boy clearly demonstrated his “homicidal state of mind” and read out messages confessing to wanting to kill someone, in one instance writing: “I just want to kill everyone and it just keeps getting worse.”

He added it was the ranting of a 14-year-old boy against a backdrop of downloading a bomb-making manual, researching explosives and bombs and looking into obtaining weapons, adding a much more sinister plan was in place.

He said the Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, in the early stages of their plotting, carried out internet research into explosives and the manufacture of bombs, expressed support for Nazism and went about trying to get hold of firearms and kept diaries of their plans.

Mr Greaney said people now looked back at the Columbine massacre with the benefit of hindsight, but “the clues were there”.

He said: “But during the early stages of the plotting, had the killers of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold come to light, along with their internet research would they maintain this was juvenile fantasy? And who would believe two bright students would carry out an attack on their school and give them the benefit of the doubt?”

Mr Greaney then addressed the jury: “You should be sure these two planned to murder other students at the school and you can be sure, when they did so, the plan in their minds was real, not fantasy.”

But Richard Pratt QC, defence barrister for the older teenager, told the jury there was a “world of difference” between the older teen and “real terrorists and real killers”.

He went on: “The terrorists commit an act of terror. The mass murderers; killings.

“Before they do, they plan. They agree the means by which they plan to carry out their deadly means. They do not pause to window shop, they go in and buy. The mass murderers and terrorists do not, in the days leading up to their activities brag to a bunch of school boys and school girls about their plans or joke about it.”

He added: “There has to be in their minds a real intention to put the plan into place. Of course, they did not kill like the Columbine duo did. But neither did make any real plans to murder.”

He read out a diary entry written by the older teenager, describing plans to kill a friend's parents, grab her father’s guns, make some explosives and then return to Northallerton to carry out an attack on a school.

Mr Pratt told the jury: “Is that the real intention of a homicidal teenager, or just the wildest piece of youthful imagination?”

The trial continues.