A British teenager who had a twisted
fascination with the Colombine High School shooters has been found guilty of
buying a gun in preparation for a massacre.
Kyle Davies, 19, saw the mass killers and Anders Breivik in Norway
as his ‘poster boys’, prosecutors said.
He used the cryptocurrency Bitcoin to purchase a Glock 17 and five
rounds of ammunition on the dark web, ordering it to his family home in
Gloucester.
Homeland Security officers in the US intercepted the order at
Newark Airport in New York and tipped off local police, who arrested Davies
after delivering a dummy package to his home.
But when officers
searched his bedroom, they discovered handwritten notes and a USB stick
containing more than 1,000 pages relating to explosives and massacres.
A jury unanimously
convicted him of attempting to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life and
attempting to possess the ammunition with intent to endanger life following a
two-week trial at Gloucester Crown Court.
Judge Paul Cook told Davies: ‘You have been
found guilty in relation to both counts of the indictment.
‘You are facing a significant period of
imprisonment but I need to have further information about you and the risk that
you pose.’ He will sentence Davies on a date to be fixed.
During the trial, jurors heard how Davies was an ordinary A-level
pupil planning to go to university but had developed a ‘deep and persistent’
interest in mass murders.
He had vast quantities of material relating to the Columbine High
School shootings and to Breivik on a USB drive found after his arrest in June
last year.
A shopping list entitled Phase One included the costs of items
including a gas mask, trench coat, gloves, boots, body armour and a leg pistol
holder.
Davies had scrawled ‘Hello Mr Policeman’ on one page of writing, with
‘This one Mr Policeman’ and an arrow next to it pointing to a passage about his
mental state.
The court heard the handgun, magazine and five rounds of
ammunition the teenager had ordered were all tested and found to be viable.
After Davies was arrested, he told firearms officers: ‘I know, I
know. You should have just shot me.
I haven’t technically possessed anything anyway.’ Prosecutor Anna
Vigars QC told the jury: ‘He wasn’t preparing for suicide.
‘He was perhaps expecting to die at the end of his own lethal
killing spree and take as many others as possible out with him on the way.’
Source: Metro co uk
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