Teen who shot family plotted to kill 30 school children to become most notorious mass killer
Shooter Nicholas Prosper, then 18, spent a year plotting a school attack which was disrupted by ‘chance and circumstance alone’, Luton Crown Court heard
A teenager who brutally murdered his family planned to shoot 30 early years children at a primary school in order to become the deadliest mass killer in history, a court heard.
Nicholas Prosper’s horrific plot, which he meticulously planned for more than a year, only failed after his unsuspecting family challenged him.
The 18-year-old had intended to shoot his mother, brother and sister as they slept with a shotgun he purchased with a counterfeit licence and lie in wait at their eighth floor flat in Luton before ambushing the 9am assembly of four and five-year-olds at nearby St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School.
But an extended violent struggle with his family alerted neighbours who called the police. Officers discovered their lifeless bodies following the early morning attack on Friday 13 September last year.
He was seen on CCTV fleeing the flat at 5.33am and hid nearby for around two hours as police swarmed the area.
Believing the primary school would be locked down, he eventually flagged down a passing police car and was arrested by officers, who found a shotgun hidden in a bush along with 30 cartridges.
His mother Juliana Falcon, 48, was found with a gunshot wound to he head, along with his younger sister Giselle Prosper, 13, who was sheltering under a dining table. His brother Kyle Prosper, 16, was shot in the chest and head also suffered over 100 knife wounds.
Prosper’s actions were “cold, deliberate and without sympathy or emotion”, prosecutor Timothy Cray KC told Luton Crown Court, adding he wanted 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 said.
He had carried out surveillance on St Joseph’s, his former primary school, including capturing images of staff and pupils from the school’s website and checking lesson and assembly times.
He intended to kill 30 early years pupils, two members of staff and himself in the rampage, the court heard.
He was prevented from seeing through the scheme “by chance and circumstance alone”, Mr Cray said.
Investigators found he had researched other mass school shooters, their manifestos and had an “interest in the darkest sides of humanity”, including people being killed or seriously injured.
He had also researched schools near his home and selected a distinctive black and yellow “uniform” to help him be remembered, the court heard.
Footage played to the court showed him dressed in the outfit, complete with a yellow bucket hat, brandishing a wooden post like a gun.
The day before the attack he purchased a shotgun and 100 cartridges for £650 cash from a private seller, who delivered it to his flat in Luton, after he sent him a forged shotgun licence.
He spent the rest of the day carrying out online searches about arterial anatomy, including “do you die if shot in the neck”, “man shoots woman in the head at close range” and one relating to necrophilia.
In a video posted to his Facebook page at 6.22am on the day of the shooting he claimed his sister Giselle had made “incorrect choices” while playing video game The Walking Dead and “for that her face will be mutilated further than is necessary”.
Referring to an eight-year-old fictional character called Clementine in the zombie apocalypse game, he added: "I am the chosen one; chosen by Clementine. I am guided as Christians are guided by Jesus Christ."
However Mr Cray said his explanations for the crime should be treated with caution, adding: “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 explained his actions to a medical practitioner inside Bedford Prison, whispering to her: “I wish I had killed more.”
He told her he wanted to kill more than the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre 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 said.
Afterwards, he told her he was going to take his own life and “join” his friend Clementine from The Walking Dead.
Handwritten notes found in his trainer sole after a search of his cell in November 2024 detailed how he planned to shoot his sleeping family with “three shots under 30 seconds” and blamed his mother 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 also a step-by-step guide to the planned attack, in which he said he would "shout that this is a robbery and for everyone to get down" before firing.
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No concerns were raised about Prosper’s mental health during years 7 to 11 at school, where was described as “geeky” with a small group of friends.
However he dropped out of sixth form after teachers noted he struggled to get any work done and was later sacked from a job stacking shelves in Sainsbury’s.
A consultant forensic psychiatrist concluded Prosper shows clear signs of previously undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder, however other aspects of his behaviour can be described as “psychopathic traits”, the court heard.
In a victim personal statement, the killer’s father Raymond Prosper said the family will never be the same following the tragedy.
“The pain of our loss will never be healed,” he said. “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 said Prosper is a “young man who has gone down an internet wormhole”. He said he had been living "in a fantasy world", adding: "Unfortunately, that fantasy world broke out into the real world."
He reminded the judge that he had decided not to carry out the school attack before 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 wearing a grey t-shirt and glasses in the dock for his sentencing hearing on Tuesday.
Prosper, now 19, last month admitted to the three murders as well as charges of purchasing a shotgun without a license, possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life and possession of a kitchen knife in a public place.
Following his guilty plea, headteacher Maureen Murphy at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Luton, where he and his siblings had all been pupils, said staff were “very shocked” to learn of the plot.
Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb is due to pass sentence on Wednesday.