Nicholas Prosper: Teen who murdered family ‘planned on killing at least 30 schoolchildren’
A teenager who murdered his family and wanted to be the worst mass killer the UK has seen had 33 cartridges on him to carry out an attack on his former school, a court has heard.
Nicholas Prosper shot his mother Juliana Falcon, 48, sister Giselle, 13, and shot and stabbed his brother Kyle, 16, at their family home in Luton on 13 September last year.
But the 19-year-old did not plan on stopping there, according to prosecutor Timothy Cray KC, who told Luton Crown Court he had prepared the murders “for months” and wanted to kill at least 30 schoolchildren.
“His planning was cold, deliberate and without sympathy or emotion towards the actual victims or potential victims,” Mr Cray said, speaking at Prosper’s sentencing.
His “main wish”, however, was to “achieve lasting notoriety as a mass killer”, Mr Cray added, specifically 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 said.
“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 wouldn’t engage with mental health support, the court heard
The investigation suggests that the defendant “acted alone”, he added, and “his plans did not arise from any political or ideological cause”.
Prosper had undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the court heard, but he showed an “extreme lack of empathy with others and an extreme lack of remorse” that can’t be explained by ASD alone.
Up until Year 11, the court heard Prosper was a “geeky” and quiet boy with a small group of friends who were into computers, but problems began in sixth form and he wouldn’t engage with mental health support.
‘Extended violent struggle’
Prosper never reached St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, which was three-quarters of a mile from his home, as police arrested him after he escaped to a wooded area.
After he left, officers broke into his family flat at about 5.50am, following a call from a neighbour.
There, the court heard, they found Prosper’s little sister underneath a dining table in the living room, “as if she had been trying to hide there”.
His mother and brother – who was stabbed more than 100 times – were both found in the hallway.
Giselle Prosper (left), Juliana Prosper (centre) and Kyle Prosper. Pic: Family pics issued via Bedfordshire Police
He had planned to kill his family in their sleep, but when his mother realised something was wrong and challenged him, it led to “an extended violent struggle”.
After the horrific and noisy attack on his family members, Prosper knew police would be on their way and so had to leave three hours earlier than he had anticipated.
The teenager was then arrested by a passing police patrol as he walked along a residential road in Luton.
He had hidden the shotgun and cartridges nearby.
Prosper admitted their murders at a hearing last month, 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.
Plans long in the making
These killings were planned for more than a year, the court heard, with Prosper managing to buy a shotgun with a fake firearms certificate.
He had put together a black and yellow uniform he wanted to wear for his killing spree, and he had filmed a video of himself holding a plank of wood as a mock gun.
Nicholas Prosper has admitted killing his family
Read more:
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‘He didn’t seem like he had anything wrong with him’
Prosper had included his own name, a picture and his real address on his fake firearms licence, the court heard.
He had also inserted the signature of a Bedfordshire Police firearms sergeant on 30 August last year.
On the same day, Prosper messaged a private seller who had advertised a shotgun for £450, offering to pay £600 if cartridges were included, Mr Cray said.
The seller agreed to drop the gun off to him on 12 September, the day before the killings, prompting Prosper to respond in a message: “I look forward to meeting you.”
Forensic examiners found Prosper had fired seven cartridges, the first being a test shot into a teddy bear in his bedroom.
Prosper’s step-by-step plan
A couple of months later, a prison officer found the notes in Prosper’s trainer sole after searching his cell on 13 November.
He had written the planned shooting would be “one of the biggest events ever,” Mr Cray said.
Tributes were left outside the home. Pic: PA
“I was right in predicting no-one would’ve called the police had I killed them in their sleep. 3 shots under 30 seconds,” he had written.
“The only known phone call to police that day was made by the b**** at the door as a result of my B**** mother waking them up and it being turned into a long struggle.
“My plan wasn’t ‘stupid’. I was f****** right. MY MOTHER IS A STUPID F****** COW.”
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.”
He had also written a step-by-step plan, detailing he would jump two gates and shoot down a glass door while children were together for “prayer/registration”.
He would then “shout that this is a robbery and for everyone to get down”, before shooting two teachers and killing children at Early Years Foundation Stage – the youngest.
That part of the note finished with: “Go to the next classroom. Kill a couple more. Suicide.”
‘Pain will never heal’
His father, who was also dad to Giselle and Kyle, said part of his soul died when he found out what his son had done.
In a statement read out by Mr Cray, Raymond Prosper said: “The pain of our loss will never be healed. This includes my whole family, our lives will never be the same.
“When I heard the horrific news on that day, part of my soul died too. This is a lose-lose situation for us all.”
Sentence will be passed on Wednesday.
The work and pensions secretary has not ruled out making further cuts to the welfare budget despite already unveiling reforms designed to save £5bn.
Liz Kendall said she had made the changes – which will see the eligibility criteria for disability benefits narrowed – because she wanted to “tackle a failing system that is failing the people who depend on benefits”.
Politics live: Kendall ‘cross’ about welfare system
In an interview with Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby, the cabinet minister denied the reforms announced today were just a “drop in the ocean”.
She said she had announced a “substantial package” – and the changes would also be aimed at getting people into work to stop the overall bill ballooning to a projected £76bn by 2030.
Ms Kendall said they would deal with a “broken assessment process”, fix “terrible financial incentives” that force people on to welfare, and would focus benefits “on those in greatest need”.
“It’s providing the largest ever package of employment support,” she told Rigby.
Pressed again on whether she would rule out more savings over the course of this parliament, Ms Kendall replied: “I’m not saying that.
“I am suggesting we talk about the proposals we are actually making, and not those which we aren’t.”
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‘Can you work’ test scrapped by Labour
What changes are being made?
Earlier today, Ms Kendall announced a raft of reforms designed to cut the government’s expenditure on long-term sickness and disability benefits for working-age people, which has risen by £20bn since the pandemic.
High on the agenda were personal independence payments (PIP), which provide money for people who have extra care needs or mobility needs as a result of a disability.
People who claim it are awarded points depending on their ability to do certain activities, like washing and preparing food, and this influences how much they will receive.
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Sky’s Political Editor Beth Rigby explains the impact Labour’s welfare reforms could have on the UK.
But Ms Kendall said from November 2026, people will need to score a minimum of four points in at least one activity to qualify for the daily living element of PIP.
Currently, the standard rate is given if people score between eight and 11 points overall, while the enhanced rate applies from 12 points.
However, Ms Kendall said the government would not freeze PIP – as reports had previously suggested – following a backlash from Labour MPs.
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All the planned welfare reforms
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Why is the government cutting benefits?
Minister ‘cross’ about welfare system
Asked by Rigby whether she had wanted to go further by freezing PIP, Ms Kendall said she had “never started from a sort of macho, tough position”.
“I’ve never done politics like that,” she said. “This is about real people and real lives.”
Ms Kendall, who ran to be Labour leader in the 2015 leadership race won by Jeremy Corbyn, admitted she was “cross” about the state of the welfare system, which she described as “broken”.
“I’ve seen in my own constituency people written off to a life that is not the life they hoped for themselves, or their children or their families,” she said.
Addressing critics who have derided the changes as morally wrong, Ms Kendall said: “What I think is morally wrong is writing off people who could work.
“What’s morally wrong is looking at a benefit system where we are spending more and more on the costs of failure.
“And if that continues, the welfare state that we created won’t be there for the very people who need it.”
UK
‘Professional travelling burglar’ broke into Newcastle striker Alexander Isak’s home and stole jewellery worth £68,000
A member of a “professional group of travelling burglars” has been convicted after he broke into the home of Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak and stole jewellery worth £68,000.
Valentino Nikolov, 32, also took the Swedish footballer’s sports car and up to £10,000 in cash when he carried out the raid with three members of his family in April 2024.
Isak, who scored during Newcastle’s victory over Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final at the weekend, was not in the Northumberland home at the time.
Valentino Nikolov. Pic: Durham Constabulary
Nikolov’s family members – brother Giacomo Nikolov, 28, sister Jela Jovanovic, 43, and her son Charlie Jovanovic, 23 – all admitted conspiracy to burglary.
However, Nikolov, from Birmingham, denied the charge and was found guilty on Tuesday following a trial at Newcastle Crown Court.
His three family members, who all lived in Italy and travelled to the UK to carry out the burglary, will be sentenced at a later date.
Isak noticed bins were moved
Dan Cordey, prosecuting, told jurors how Isak left his home between 4pm and 10pm on 4 April and discovered the break-in when he returned and saw his bins had been moved.
The gang smashed a glass door to enter the property before entering the TV room and carrying out an “untidy search”, Mr Cordey said.
Giacomo Nikolov. Pic: Durham Constabulary
Isak told detectives that he kept cash in bags upstairs, made up of notes of varying denominations as well as coins, and the amount taken was between £5,000 and £10,000.
The 25-year-old striker added that bespoke men’s jewellery from Frost of London worth about £68,000 – made up of bracelets, necklaces and rings – was taken, along with his Audi RS6 estate car.
Jela Jovanovic. Pic: Durham Constabulary
A member of the public later found the car abandoned and called the police, the jury heard.
The gang also took a safe which had been left by the home’s previous tenant and did not contain anything valuable, Mr Cordey said.
Isak told police he had never used the safe and he had not been able to open it.
Charlie Jovanovic. Pic: Durham Constabulary
Images of raid on ‘doggy cam’
CCTV images of the break-in were recorded on what Mr Cordey described as a “doggy cam”.
The prosecution said: “This was a professional group of travelling burglars.
“It contained one female and three men – all related.
“Two of those men and one female have admitted their part in pleading guilty.”
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Isak with the trophy after Newcastle’s Carabao Cup victory over Liverpool on Sunday. Pic: PA
Gang used Citroen and Ford motorhome
The thieves had already stolen jewellery and clothes worth more than £1m and the CBE medal belonging to Tyneside businesswoman Helen McArdle, as well as designer goods worth £100,000 from a woman in Whitburn, Sunderland, in the days before breaking into Isak’s home.
The gang arrived in the UK via a ferry from Calais to Dover in a Citroen C3 and a Ford motorhome last March.
They headed to London then drove to the North East a few days later, the court has heard.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The gang used the Citroen to travel to break-ins and the motorhome was a base where they slept.
Nikolov represented himself and used an Italian interpreter during his trial.
Safet Ramic, who is the 58-year-old father of Valentino Nikolov’s former partner, and who is from Winson Street, Birmingham, was cleared of a single charge of handling stolen goods.
Two men have been found guilty over the theft of a £4.75m gold toilet from the house where Sir Winston Churchill was born.
Michael Jones helped steal the fully-functioning 18-carat gold toilet, which was an artwork named America, after breaking into Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire in the early hours of 14 September 2019.
Jones, from Oxford, had visited the stately home twice in the days before the raid but told the jury they were not reconnaissance trips.
The 39-year-old was found guilty of burglary at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday.
Frederick Doe, 36, also known as Frederick Sines, from Windsor, Berkshire, was found guilty of conspiracy to convert or transfer criminal property.
Bora Guccuk, 41, from west London, was found not guilty of the same charge.
Doe helped James Sheen – who has been described as the mastermind of the raid – to sell some of the gold in the weeks after the theft.
Sheen, 40, from Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, earlier pleaded guilty to burglary.
He also admitted conspiracy to transfer criminal property and one count of transferring criminal property at Oxford Crown Court in April 2024.
Michael Jones, 39, has been found guilty of burglary. Pic: PA
Jones had worked as a roofer and builder for Sheen from around 2018 and was effectively his “right-hand man”, his trial heard.
On one of his visits before the burglary, Jones took photos from inside the building of the window that the thieves would use to enter the stately home.
The day before the raid he took photos of the toilet itself, the lock on the toilet door and further pictures of the same window from the outside.
Prosecutor Julian Christopher KC said during trial that it appears five men carried out the raid – however only Jones and Sheen have been caught.
Sheen and his accomplices drove two stolen vehicles, a VW Golf and an Isuzu truck, through locked gates at Blenheim Palace shortly before 5am on the night of the raid.
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CCTV shows theft of £4.75m gold toilet
Stolen gold toilet was ‘used by Jones’
James Sheen, 40, pleaded guilty to burglary. Pic: PA
Thames Valley Police said three men armed with sledgehammers and a crowbar gained entry to the palace, smashed through the solid wooden door and tore the toilet from its fixings.
The carefully planned raid was over within five minutes.
The gold was believed to be worth about £2.8m at the time of the theft.
However the artwork, which weighed around 98kg, had been insured for the price of £4.75m.
A couple of days after the burglary, Sheen contacted Doe about selling the gold.
Through coded messages, the two men talked about “cars” and getting offered “26 and a half” – which the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says refers to the men getting £26,500 per kilo of the stolen gold.
Jones was arrested on 16 October 2019 before officers analysed his phone.
The force found he had searched for news reports about the stolen toilet on 20 September 2019, jurors were told.
The fully-functioning 18-carat gold toilet was stolen in September 2019. Pic: Tom Lindboe/PA Media
A photo shows the scene in Blenheim Palace after the toilet was torn from its fittings. Pic: PA
Meanwhile, Sheen’s DNA was found both on a sledgehammer left at the scene and in the stolen Isuzu truck used in the raid.
Tracksuit bottoms seized at his home had hundreds of gold fragments on them, which when analysed were indistinguishable from the gold from which the toilet was made.
The sculpture, which was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, was the star attraction of an exhibition at the country house before it was stolen.
It could be used as a toilet by members of the public – with Jones telling the jury he took advantage of the artwork’s “facilities” the day before it was taken.
Asked what it was like, he replied: “Splendid.”
None of the gold was ever recovered, with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) saying it is likely to have been “broken up or melted down and sold on soon after it was stolen”.
Frederick Doe leaves Oxford Magistrates’ Court in 2023. Pic: PA
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Jones and Sheen will be sentenced at a date yet to be set.
Doe will be sentenced on 19 May.
Shan Saunders, from the CPS, said it was “an audacious raid which had been carefully planned and executed – but those responsible were not careful enough, leaving a trail of evidence”.
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