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The boy also claimed he had a ‘crossbow for killing Jews’
A Midlands teenager had a stash of deadly weapons and discussed whether to ‘shoot up’ his own school, a court has heard.
The self-proclaimed ‘Nazi’ developed an interest in mass attacks and wanted to carry out his own copycat killings.
He chatted online about whether to carry out a school shooting with a modified air pistol and confessed in one conversation “I wanna kill so badly, watching pathetic maggots die arouses me”.
The teenager even said he had a ‘crossbow for killing Jews’ and claimed Adolf Hitler’s birthday was to be his ‘death day’.
While on bail, he attempted to make ‘cricket bombs’ without success and downloaded a manual on how to make napalm, as well as a self-loading pistol.
The 15-year-old – from near Market Drayton, Shropshire – cannot be named due to legal reasons.
READ MORE: Suspected knifepoint robber targeted Midlands supermarkets in ‘three-week crime spree’
The youth – who has autism – admitted having a butterfly knife, a stun gun, a baton and crossbow at his home.
He also admitted having terrorist information relating to manifestos of those who went on to commit acts of terror.
At the Old Bailey on Friday (August 29), prosecutor James Bruce said: “It is clear [the boy’s] own words do demonstrate a motivation that is racial and ideological and steeped in far-right ideology.”
Although violence was never far from his mind, the defendant lacked the means to act on his thoughts, Mr Bruce added.
The prosecution told how West Mercia Police first visited the boy’s home early last November.
Officers found him ‘unkempt’ and living in an annexe of his parents’ property.
A ‘large array of weapons’ were seized, including three crossbows with bolts, six air weapons, a red Samurai sword, six knives, and a stun gun in a tactical vest bearing a far-right symbol.
An examination of his electronic devices indicated he had practised with the Samurai sword and fired one of the crossbows into a coconut.
Two days after the police raid, the boy searched the internet for “can a 50lb crossbow kill a human”.
Within days, his mum bought him a crossbow ‘pistol’ with a 50lb draw weight.
The court heard that he also chatted online about whether to ‘shoot up my school’ with a modified air pistol after the police raid.
Officers seized the new weapons when police returned two weeks later.
In his police interview, the teenager explained his computer activity by claiming he had an interest in history and had a ‘black sense of humour’.
He was released on bail on the condition he had no unsupervised internet access and did not buy any more weapons.
It was agreed with the local authority that he would move back into his parents’ main house.
The youth was also referred to the Prevent deradicalisation programme and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.
But when police returned to carry out a bail check on January 22, they found him still living in the annexe.
He also had a new internet device bought for him by his mum.
The youth had used it to log into chats about crossbows, so-called Islamic State beheading videos, and discussions about school shootings.
He was later remanded into Feltham Young Offenders Institution.
In March, officers at the centre found and confiscated a homemade weapon.
The court heard that a further examination of his electronic devices revealed his fascination with weapons, death and killing dated back to 2023.
In a WhatsApp chat with a girl, he spoke of wanting to carry out a mass shooting and die at the end of it, saying ‘voices’ were telling him to kill.
He said: “I wanna kill so badly, watching pathetic maggots die arouses me.”
The youth wrote that April 20 – Adolf Hitler’s birthday – was to be his ‘death day’.
He said that he would ‘kill lots of people’ with a ‘taser, knife, and much more’.
The boy named his own school and two other schools on the Isle of Wight – but there was no evidence he had ever been there.
Mr Bruce noted the ‘death day’ the boy had identified came and went without incident.
Police also uncovered a video of the youth displaying a crossbow and flag.
In the footage, he said: “Embarrassed ‘cus I’m a Nazi, look I’ve got my crossbow for killing Jews, ha ha, I’m a Nazi.”
Another video captured him practising thrusting a knife, saying: “It’s an illegal knife.
“My knife is meant for murder, I know how to use it.”
The boy had marked his weapons with the names of infamous bombers and gunmen, as well as the words “born to kill”.
Mr Bruce said careful consideration was made by the Crown on whether to charge the boy with preparation of terrorist acts.
But it was decided that would not be in the public interest.
Dominic Thomas, defending, said the youth had become ‘isolated’ during the Covid pandemic and was being bullied at school.
He said the boy had become ‘fixated’ and ‘obsessed’ after falling down a hole of ‘anger’ and ‘extremism’ on the internet.
While he accepted there were ‘several expressions of intended violence at his hand’, the boy ‘never crossed the line’ from fantasy into action, he added.
The youth maintained he was only ‘pretending’ as a way of coping with the bullying he had experienced, Mr Thomas said.
Judge Rebecca Trowler KC will sentence the defendant later.
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