Two Tyneside schoolboys bought bomb-making materials off the internet and discussed blowing up the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, a local school and Eldon Square.
The troubled youngsters, 15 at the time, started amassing chemicals, pipes and fuses to make devices based on a recipe in the “Anarchist’s Cookbook”.
A court heard the pair were caught in conversations on Skype talking about:
going on a drug-fuelled rampage
killing families in their homes
making a beheading video
referencing Lee Rigby and Raoul Moat
expressing a desire to spend their final days as wanted men.
A mobile phone seized from one of them was found to contain messages, chat and links relating to making explosives, Molotov cocktals, bottle bombs, nail bombs, acetone peroxide, the uses of chlorine and the Taliban. Other material showed references to a hatred of Jews and black people.
One of the youths, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also discussed Newcastle shopping centre Eldon Square as “somewhere he could go out with a bang”.
The family of one of the teenagers raised the alarm and police found them in possession of chemicals, fuses and pipes.
Although the materials had not been made into bombs, Army experts said they could have been used for viable improvised explosive devices.
The two boys, now 16, have now been sent to youth custody for 12 months at Newcastle Crown Court after they admitted conspiracy to make an explosive substance for unlawful purpose.
Prosecutor Nick Dry said one of the defendants had been confronted by his parents last year after they became concerned about him.
Mr Dry said: “They had noticed a change in him over the past year or so when he had started to show them photographs of drugs, money and weapons, tell sick jokes about 9/11 and, latterly, tell them that he was making a bomb.
“In fact, Skype communications between the defendants in October and November last year confirms they were doing just that.
“The conversation reveals that they were looking to sell drugs in order to fund the purchase of materials to make pipe bombs and a firearm.
“Potential targets discussed included a local public school, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and a random shopping centre.
“Escape plans were discussed along with potential suicide, both defendants stating that it was what they had wanted for a long time and agreeing to source the constituent parts of pipe bombs.”
Within a short time, a box of fuses arrived at the home of one of the boys, who also bought and cut down lengths of pipe which he told his parents were for a school project.
After being confronted by them about the fuses, which his parents had intercepted and confiscated, he told them he was going to blow himself up on the school field.
Mr Dry said: “He reported his father’s seizure of the fuses to (the other youth) then they discussed using bottles, nails and flamethrowers as alternatives and considered addressing packages of items purchased on the internet to neighbours to avoid interception by their parents.
“(One of them) was keen that he end his own life, suicide his priority although happy to go along with (the other one’s) desire to kill others with a view to being remembered.
“Orders were then placed for various chemicals with a view to making explosives, addressed to a neighbour.”
However the materials were delivered to his own home and his parents opened the three packages. There was half a kilo of aluminium powder, a kilo of sulphur and 250ml of acetone.
The boy initially claimed it was for a school project but then admitted it was to make “flash powder”, an explosive substance.
Mr Dry said: “He then informed his co-defendant of the seizure and the two discussed their options, again using Skype.
“Their conversation was captured and revealed plans for a drug-fuelled rampage, wherein they spoke of killing families in their own homes, referencing Lee Rigby and Raoul Moat, and expressing their desire to spend their final days as wanted men.
“One was also keen to make a beheading video and vowed not to be taken alive.”
In December last year the mum of one of the youths searched his room and found powders which turned out to be paracetamol, caffeine and sucrose, substances commonly used to dilute drugs.
She called the police, who also seized the aluminium powder, sulphur and acetone.
On his way to the police station the boy, who has mental health issues, was singing to himself, including the words “No surrender”.
A phone seized from him was found to contain images of knives, a replica gun, bullets, money, a bag of white powder, along with video files showing a car crash and a staged explosion.
A message to the other boy read: “Fam found something, deciding if to report me, I could get life or worse if they check everything else”.
The day after his arrest, another package arrived, containing three tubs of potassium nitrate weighing 1.5 kilos, and was intercepted by police.
The other boy was also arrested and was found to have six metal pipes in the garage, another in the kitchen and a bag of fuses.
Mr Dry said: “A mobile telephone seized from the same location was interrogated and found to contain messages, chat and links relating to making explosives, Molotov cocktails, bottle bombs, nail bombs, acetone peroxide, the uses of chlorine and the Taliban.
“Other material evinced a hatred of Jews and blacks.
In police interviews one of the boys admitted they had been assembling devices based on a recipe in the Anarchist’s Cookbook and said they wanted to blow themselves up.
Mr Dry said: “He says whereas he wanted to blow himself up in the middle of a field he said his friend had more homicidal tendencies and intended to take others with him, discussing Eldon Square in the centre of Newcastle as somewhere he could go out with a bang.”
Sentencing the pair, Judge John Milford QC said: “Police discovered contacts between you in discussion about targeting a number of different establishments, locally and nationally, with bombs.
“In the event, because of the intervention of your parents and police, no explosives were created and no bombs were made.
“But the potential of such items in the hands of disturbed teenagers, which you both undoubtedly were at this time, is frightening.”
Geoff Knowles, defending the boy whose parents found the materials, said he suffers from a mental health condition and was a “lonely young man who was clearly isolated from his peers” and was vulnerable.
Mr Knowles added: “There was no physical attempt to create any device and flash powder is not lethal.
“It’s clear he was struggling with a number of issues in his personal life at this time.”
Shaun Routledge, for the other youth, said: “Thanks to the actions of their parents, this offending was stopped in its tracks.
“Since they were sending ridiculous Skype messages and talking nonsense, they have calmed down and are looking to the future”
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