A COLUMBINE-obsessed teenager who plotted to kill pupils and teachers in a “Doomsday” shooting in revenge for bullying has been jailed for six years.
Felix Winter, 18, fantasised about carrying out a massacre at his Edinburgh secondary school after idolising the twisted killers behind the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in the US, where 12 pupils and a teacher were shot dead.
Felix Winter, 18, pleaded guilty to a breach of the peace and a charge under the Terrorism Act
GettyThe Columbine-obsessed gun nut plotted to carry out a ‘Doomsday’ school shooting in revenge for bullying[/caption]
GettyHe was jailed for six years today at the High Court in Glasgow[/caption]
The Nazi-worshipper sparked alarm by turning up to class in combat gear and carrying a gun.
Investigators later found a chilling notebook where Winter had described his school as “a virus” and scrawled “all you f***ers need to die and you will soon.”
The teenager – who the court previously heard was transgender and identifies as male – planned to wipe out classmates and staff with explosives, guns and poison, after claiming he was being picked on and learning about “school shootings in modern studies”.
Winter had already been referred to a UK-wide programme designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism before he devised the sick plot.
But no further action was taken for months even despite Winter continuing to openly discuss mass shootings.
Winter’s defence team urged a judge not to jail the warped teen and instead impose a community order.
But the judge ruled that out stating in his sentencing remarks that Winter appeared to be “progressing to the brink of a mass school shooting”.
Jailing Winter for six years today, Lord Paul Arthurson added: “This was a prolonged, disturbing course of conduct.”
Winter’s parents were in court and his dad collapsed in shock at the sentence.
Defence KC Shelagh McCall told the court Winter, who was just 15 when the plot attack was devised, was bullied.
She told the court Winter had been “groomed” by a twisted online community who made the wannabe killer believe the “violent fantasy was morally justified”.
She said: “The cause was revenge for bullying. Nothing in the investigation provided proper basis for terrorism material. The accused identified with Columbine.
“He felt harm was justified towards those who had harmed him and to those who had failed to protect him.”
A police probe kicked off in summer 2023 after a chilling photo of Winter dressed head-to-toe in combat gear and wielding an imitation rifle inside the school surfaced on social media.
The image sparked panic among terrified parents and pupils.
Winter, who harboured vile pro-Nazi and racist views, had already been flagged to a UK-wide anti-terror programme aimed at stopping young people from becoming radicalised.
Winter had showed pals pictures and videos of dead victims of school shootings and even showed one pal detailed instructions involving explosions before telling them a plan to carrying out the suicide attack.
Winter then dressed in clothes similar to those worn by the Columbine killers and posted a video on TikTok.
Winter admitted to a breach of the peace and the separate charge under the Terrorism Act, with offences spanning from June 2022 to July 2023.
Defence KC Shelagh McCall said Winter had autism, and that a professor had found a “serious link” between the condition and the disturbing behaviour – insisting it was not driven by extremist ideology.
She said Winter had shown clear progress since the arrest.
She said: “He has expressed regret and recognises that he didn’t previously appreciate how his behaviour was impacting on others.
“He accepts in the context of his plea of guilty and his remarks about school shootings in 2022, him dressing in that costume and carrying that in a school would generate alarm to those who came upon it but this was not his intent.”
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