Triple murderer who plotted UK’s worst school shooting jailed for 49 years

A teenager who murdered his mum, brother and sister before planning to carry out ‘the most famous school shooting of the 21^st century’ has been jailed for at least 49 years.

Nicholas Prosper, 19, massacred his family at the flat they shared in Luton on September 13 last year.

His plans to then murder at least 30 three and four-year-old children at his old school, St Joseph’s Catholic Primary, was only thwarted by the struggle his mum Juliana Falcon, 48, put up when she woke early and saw him with a shotgun.

She was shot in the head at near point-blank range before Prosper placed the novel ‘How to Kill Your Family’ on her legs.

He then fired at his 13-year-old sister, Giselle Prosper, as she tried to run for cover before blasting the ‘terrified’ youngster in the face while she cowered under a table.

Prosper’s brother Kyle, 16, bravely tried to defend himself from the rampage but Luton Crown Court heard ‘it was an unequal contest’.

After disarming him with a shot to the chest, Prosper ‘slashed him more than 100 times to his head, face, neck, torso and limbs, while he pleaded with you not to kill him’, the judge said.

Kyle managed to flee into the hallway where he was finally killed with a shot to the head.

Prosper then hid for just over two hours before flagging down police officers in a nearby street and showing them where he had hidden a loaded shotgun and 33 cartridges near playing fields.

Officers who rushed to the flat were confronted with a ‘scene of horror’, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said, with the walls covered with bloody handprints from the struggle.

Prosper, who pleaded guilty to the three murders, had wanted to emulate and outdo the US school massacres at Sandy Hook in 2012 and Virginia Tech in 2007.

He also tried to copy other famous UK killers who refused to come to court and face justice, but Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb delayed the hearing so he could be dragged to court.

‘You have to face the consequences of your actions, to hear the court’s sentence passed in public, and it is important for those who loved your victims to see you sentenced,’ she told him.

‘You intended to unleash disaster on the community of Luton. Your plans were intelligent, calculating and selfish.

‘Your ambition was notoriety. You wanted to be known posthumously as the world’s most famous school shooter of the 21st century.

‘The lives of your own mother and younger brother and sister were to be collateral damage on the way to fulfil your ambition.’

She added: ‘Words such as heartless and brutal are insufficient to describe the last moments of the people who were closest to you.’

Juliana was described by the judge as a hard-working woman who cared for her children and had tried to get Prosper to get help when he was struggling at school.

‘She was an innocent victim of an ungrateful, unfeeling son whose only wish was to be famous through destroying the lives of young children,’ Mrs Cheema-Grubb said.

Kyle had ‘his whole future ahead, he fought bravely for his life, but there was no contest with his older armed brother’, she told the court.

Giselle was ‘a smiling girl, no doubt the treasure of her parents and friends’.

Prosper later told a prison nurse he had wanted to cause ‘the biggest massacre in the 21st century’ by murdering his family and carrying out a mass shooting at his former primary school.

He deliberately chose Friday 13 for the day of the attack.

The detective who led the investigation said he had ‘never encountered anyone capable of such horrific acts whilst showing no remorse’.

Detective Chief Inspector Sam Khanna said: ‘Our thoughts today are first and foremost with Juliana, Kyle and Giselle and all who knew and loved them.

‘They should be who we remember, their names who we say rather than the person who carried out these despicable murders and who intended to carry out an unimaginable level of harm to innocent school children.

‘In my entire policing career, which has included many years spent investigating murders, I have never encountered anyone capable of such horrific acts whilst showing no remorse.

‘I have been utterly shocked and appalled by the actions and plans of the offender in this case and am pleased that this truly evil individual will now be serving a significant proportion of his life behind bars.’

Throughout secondary school up to the end of year 11 there had been no concerns about him – he was described as a quiet and geeky boy with a small group of friends who were into computers.

But once he began sixth form he stopped engaging with school staff or his family, and refused help from mental health workers.

His then-undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder meant he could not stay in mainstream education or hold down a job, and he became increasingly isolated, spending more time online and becoming obsessed with school shootings.

Defending, David Bentley KC said he had gone down ‘an internet wormhole’.

He plotted for months to kill his family and carry out the school shooting, even choosing a black and yellow uniform that he would wear for the killing spree.

Prosper managed to forge a gun licence and used it to buy a shotgun and 100 cartridges from a legitimate firearms dealer the day before the murders.

Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner John Tizard has written to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper calling for urgent reform of gun laws.

The teenager learned enough about clay pigeon shooting to convince the vendor he had a real interest in the sport, and met him in the car park near the flat he shared with his family in Luton, Bedfordshire, last year, where he paid £650 for the weapon and ammunition.

Less than 24 hours later he used it to murder his mother, brother and sister, and had planned to carry out a school shooting.

Mr Tizard has called for a review of current regulations that give vendors seven days to tell police about a sale.

He wrote: ‘This case has exposed a major system failure and some serious shortcomings in the current law.

‘I believe that new legislation is needed to ensure public safety and to restore confidence in firearms licensing policy and process when firearms are sold or exchanged.

‘I believe that one viable option would be for anyone wishing to purchase a firearm to provide documented confirmation from the police service that they have a legitimate entitlement to own a firearm, as well as proof of identity to the vendor.

‘This confirmation needs to be shared by the police with the vendor ahead of sale and exchange.

‘It is clear to me that there should be a national database of firearm licence holders or the ability of police services to be able to interrogate each other’s databases.’

He said: ‘There is an urgent need for legislative change.

‘The public rightly would expect stringent and effective safeguards to be in place to better regulate the issuing of licences, and gun sales and exchanges, particularly when the vendor is a private individual, in order to keep us all safe.’

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