A 19-year-old man who shot dead his mother and two younger siblings had planned to kill 30 children at a primary school before being stopped by police, a court has heard.
Nicholas Prosper, from Luton, Bedfordshire, had wanted to carry out the killing at his former primary school to gain notoriety as a mass murderer, and had been planning it for months.
Luton crown court heard the details of the plot and how he had murdered his mother Juliana Falcon, 48, brother Kyle Prosper, 16, and sister Giselle Prosper, 13, at the family home in Luton on 13 September last year.
Prosper admitted their murders at an earlier hearing, as well as purchasing a shotgun without a certificate, possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life and possession of a kitchen knife in a public place.
At Prosper’s sentencing on Tuesday, the court heard how he had also planned to kill 30 early-year pupils and two teachers at St Joseph’s Catholic primary school in Luton before killing himself.
Prosecutor Timothy Cray KC said: “The defendant’s main wish was to achieve lasting notoriety as a mass killer. Specifically, he wanted to imitate and even surpass other mass killers around the world.
“He had conducted in-depth internet research on shootings in the United States of America, Norway, Australia and New Zealand.
“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.”
Prosper wrote a note saying the planned shooting would be “one of the biggest events ever”, Cray said.
His premeditated plan was months in the making and killing his family was part of it, the court heard. He had planned to shoot his mother and two younger siblings dead at their flat in Leabank, Luton, while they slept and then travel to St Joseph’s school at about 8.30am to carry out the attack.
His plans were disrupted when his family realised that something was wrong in the early hours of 13 September 2024. After challenging him, a violent struggle followed.
The court heard that Juliana was killed by a single shotgun shot to her head but her hands and arms had “slash injuries and bruising as if she had been trying to ward off blows from a knife”. Giselle was killed with a single gunshot to her face. Her body was found underneath a dining table “as if she had been trying to hide there”. Kyle died after being shot twice. His body was found with over 100 knife wounds.
When forensic teams entered the property, they found “blood throughout the flat”, including “handprints in blood, smeared blood and airborne blood”.
The sounds of gunfire and a struggle alarmed neighbours, who called the police. CCTV footage shown to the court shows Prosper leaving the block of flats at 5.33am with a bag containing a shotgun with 30 cartridges.
He flagged officers after leaving the scene, who detained him. They found a knife in his right pocket and he directed the officers to the bush that hid the shotgun.
The court heard details of a note outlining Prosper’s plan. In it, he wrote the entire attack would be “one of the biggest events ever” and included a diagram pointing to one of the early years’ classrooms at St Joseph’s and an arrow pointing to a second classroom. Beside the first classroom he had written, “Kill all.”
While in custody, Prosper told a medical practitioner at Bedford prison that he was initially going to carry out the attack on Thursday 12 September but decided to wait until the following day, Friday 13 September, “so it had a good name on it”.
The court also heard how he “made a high-quality forgery of a shotgun certificate or licence” to buy the shotgun, which he purchased for £650, from a online private seller.
