A teenager accused of plotting a “new Columbine” massacre was called a future mass killer by his mother, a court heard.
Michael Piggin allegedly had a hit list of pupils and teachers he wanted to kill. He also plotted to attack a mosque, threatened to murder TV’s David Dickinson and said he wanted to blow up Poundland because “it’s too expensive”.
Piggin’s mother compared him to Adam Lanza who killed 20 US schoolchildren and six staff in Connecticut in 2012, the Old Bailey heard.
Prosecutor Max Hill QC told the jury: “There is evidence of some bulling during Piggin’s time at school and there are perhaps aspects of his behaviour which form reactions to that bullying. He rails against people at college and elsewhere who treat him badly. But that doesn’t excuse his desire to kill. It doesn’t excuse his target list or hit list.”
Piggin admitted taking air pistols into school and showing them to other pupils. In February last year he was arrested after brandishing a knife in Loughborough town centre. Mr Hill continued : “Piggin had the items for a reason, not just interest in history or the military. That’s proved by the fact that he got out a knife and brandished it (in the street). He wasn’t just talking about knives, he was armed on the streets of Loughborough.”
The teenager and two other 18-year-old boys who cannot be named have admitted possessing petrol bombs and pipe bombs. Piggin, of Loughborough, Leics, denies terrorism charges.
The trial continues.
See also “Mother of neo-Nazi teen compared him to Sandy Hook school killer before he ‘plotted Columbine-style massacre’”, Daily Mail, 8 May 2014