A teen who brutally murdered his household deliberate to shoot 30 early years youngsters at a major faculty to be able to turn out to be the deadliest mass killer in historical past, a courtroom heard.
Nicholas Prosper’s horrific plot, which he meticulously deliberate for greater than a yr, solely failed after his unsuspecting household challenged him.
The 18-year-old had meant to shoot his mom, brother and sister as they slept with a shotgun he bought with a counterfeit licence and lie in wait at their eighth ground flat in Luton earlier than ambushing the 9am meeting of 4 and five-year-olds at close by St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School.
But an prolonged violent battle together with his household alerted neighbours who known as the police. Officers found their lifeless our bodies following the early morning assault on Friday 13 September final yr.
He was seen on CCTV fleeing the flat at 5.33am and hid close by for round two hours as police swarmed the world.
Believing the first faculty could be locked down, he finally flagged down a passing police automotive and was arrested by officers, who discovered a shotgun hidden in a bush together with 30 cartridges.
His mom Juliana Falcon, 48, was discovered with a gunshot wound to he head, alongside together with his youthful sister Giselle Prosper, 13, who was sheltering underneath a eating desk. His brother Kyle Prosper, 16, was shot within the chest and head additionally suffered over 100 knife wounds.
Prosper’s actions had been “cold, deliberate and without sympathy or emotion”, prosecutor Timothy Cray KC instructed Luton Crown Court, including he wished to “imitate and even surpass other mass killers around the world”.
“He understood his plans, if realised, would bring about the greatest number of deaths in a school or other mass shooting in the United Kingdom and possibly even in the United States of America,” Mr Cray mentioned.
He had carried out surveillance on St Joseph’s, his former major faculty, together with capturing photographs of workers and pupils from the college’s web site and checking lesson and meeting instances.
He meant to kill 30 early years pupils, two members of workers and himself within the rampage, the courtroom heard.
He was prevented from seeing by means of the scheme “by chance and circumstance alone”, Mr Cray mentioned.
Investigators discovered he had researched different mass faculty shooters, their manifestos and had an “interest in the darkest sides of humanity”, together with folks being killed or severely injured.
He had additionally researched faculties close to his residence and chosen a particular black and yellow “uniform” to assist him be remembered, the courtroom heard.
Footage performed to the courtroom confirmed him dressed within the outfit, full with a yellow bucket hat, brandishing a picket publish like a gun.
The day earlier than the assault he bought a shotgun and 100 cartridges for £650 money from a personal vendor, who delivered it to his flat in Luton, after he despatched him a solid shotgun licence.
He spent the remainder of the day finishing up on-line searches about arterial anatomy, together with “do you die if shot in the neck”, “man shoots woman in the head at close range” and one referring to necrophilia.
In a video posted to his Facebook web page at 6.22am on the day of the capturing he claimed his sister Giselle had made “incorrect choices” whereas taking part in online game The Walking Dead and “for that her face will be mutilated further than is necessary”.
Referring to an eight-year-old fictional character known as Clementine within the zombie apocalypse recreation, he added: “I am the chosen one; chosen by Clementine. I am guided as Christians are guided by Jesus Christ.”
However Mr Cray mentioned his explanations for the crime must be handled with warning, including: “The idea that he was solely or even mainly motivated by a video game does not square with the amount of research he put into researching other mass killers.”
Several days later he defined his actions to a medical practitioner inside Bedford Prison, whispering to her: “I wish I had killed more.”
He instructed her he wished to kill greater than the 2012 Sandy Hook bloodbath in Connecticut, US, which claimed 28 lives.
“He explained that he wanted to cause the biggest massacre in the 21st century as there hasn’t been one,” Mr Cray mentioned.
Afterwards, he instructed her he was going to take his personal life and “join” his pal Clementine from The Walking Dead.
Handwritten notes present in his coach sole after a search of his cell in November 2024 detailed how he deliberate to shoot his sleeping household with “three shots under 30 seconds” and blamed his mom for waking up.
The notes continued: “But why so early? So I’d have time to cannibalise my family, and rape a woman at knife point before the shooting.
“Why? Because I could.”
There was additionally a step-by-step information to the deliberate assault, through which he mentioned he would “shout that this is a robbery and for everyone to get down” earlier than firing.
No issues had been raised about Prosper’s psychological well being throughout years 7 to 11 in school, the place was described as “geeky” with a small group of associates.
However he dropped out of sixth kind after lecturers famous he struggled to get any work performed and was later sacked from a job stacking cabinets in Sainsbury’s.
A advisor forensic psychiatrist concluded Prosper reveals clear indicators of beforehand undiagnosed autism spectrum dysfunction, nevertheless different points of his behaviour will be described as “psychopathic traits”, the courtroom heard.
In a sufferer private assertion, the killer’s father Raymond Prosper mentioned the household won’t ever be the identical following the tragedy.
“The pain of our loss will never be healed,” he mentioned. “This includes the whole of our family and our lives will never be the same.
“When I heard the news of what happened that horrific day part of my soul died too. This is a lose-lose situation and we have lost four family members.”
In mitigation, David Bentley KC mentioned Prosper is a “young man who has gone down an internet wormhole”. He mentioned he had been dwelling “in a fantasy world”, including: “Unfortunately, that fantasy world broke out into the real world.”
He reminded the choose that he had determined to not perform the college assault earlier than he gestured to police, which led to his arrest.
“Any suggestion that it’s police intervention which thwarted this planned attack is misconceived,” he added.
The killer appeared sporting a gray t-shirt and glasses within the dock for his sentencing listening to on Tuesday.
Prosper, now 19, final month admitted to the three murders in addition to expenses of buying a shotgun with no license, possession of a shotgun with intent to hazard life and possession of a kitchen knife in a public place.
Following his responsible plea, headteacher Maureen Murphy at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Luton, the place he and his siblings had all been pupils, mentioned workers had been “very shocked” to be taught of the plot.
Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb is because of cross sentence on Wednesday.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/nicholas-prosper-murder-sentence-luton-b2716699.html