Pro-Nazi teen who ‘idolised’ Columbine killers planned to carry out similar shooting at his Edinburgh school | World News

However, in 2023, a large-scale police probe began after the boy was seen in a photo on social media, wearing full combat gear and carrying an imitation gun in school. This caused pupils and parents to panic.

The boy held racist and pro-Nazi views, BBC reported. As a result, he had already been referred to a UK-wide programme aimed at stopping people from supporting terrorism, or becoming terrorists.

Allegations against the suspect

The boy, now 17, recently appeared at the High Court in Glasgow, where he pleaded guilty via his defence KC Shelagh McCall to a breach of the peace and a charge under the Terrorism Act. His bail was revoked by judge Lord Arthurson, and is pending sentencing next month.

“This is a vulnerable young person. He has mental health difficulties,” McCall told the court. “He is a transgender person – that would need to be taken into account.”

Prosecutor Greg Farrell described that on 20 June 2023, the suspect, who cannot be named because of his age, had come to school wearing cargo trousers and carrying a military tactical vest and helmet. “He was later seen at the school carrying an imitation firearm while wearing the vest and helmet,” Farrell said. “A photograph was circulated on social media. It was taken and published without his knowledge.”

Farrell added, “The image provoked a considerable degree of fear and alarm among pupils and parents. Police were advised by a parent who saw the image.”

Officers later discovered that the boy had a TikTok account which contained a video of him in black combat clothes and a skeleton mask. “One piece of commentary referenced school shootings,” Farrell said.

The boy was suspended immediately, following which police spoke to other pupils who knew him. “They provided information that the boy had exhibited a variety of alarming behaviours over a period of time,” Farrell said. “The greatest concern was the suggestion he had divulged to various people a desire to carry out a school shooting similar to that which had taken place in 1999 at Columbine High School in Colorado in the USA.”

The boy’s classmates said he “spoke excitedly and with considerable enthusiasm” while talking about the Columbine massacre and other school shootings. He even appeared to sympathise with the Columbine killers, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, and would try to dress like them. One girl claimed the suspect “idolised school shooters in America.”

“In November 2022, he told her how he would go about carrying out a school attack,” Farrell said. “He explained that he would start on the second floor and that he would ‘clear it out’ using guns.”

“He would then move downstairs continuing to shoot until police arrived, at which point he would turn the gun on himself,” he added.

The boy described a possible shooting he would carry out at his school as “Doomsday,” and even expressed his wish to change his name “in an act of homage” to Klebold. “One pupil told police that the boy wore the same black trousers, trench coat, cap worn backwards and circular glasses as favoured by one of the Columbine pair,” Farrell said.

He added, “He often made comments that he ‘looked like a school shooter’.”

The boy confided in one of his classmates that he would “place a bomb in every second classroom,” and then shoot people while they would try to flee the building. He also told one girl that he wanted to do this because he was being bullied, and was “fed-up” being there.

Police stopped the boy under the Terrorism Act as he returned from holiday with his family on July 9, 2023. Authorities seized many of his electronic devices, and found several files on a mobile phone, some of them about “homemade” firearms and poisons. As many as 65 videos of Columbine were found in his possession, with added music appearing to “glamourise” the tragedy. Another video taken at his school appeared to show him trying to “mimic the actions” of the American shooters. Cops also found a journal where he had written disturbing remarks.

Fow now, the teenager is expected to be sent to a secure unit for youngsters – described as a “place of safety.”