Teen who murdered his family and planned school massacre jailed for life with minimum of 48 years

19 March 2025, 12:57 | Updated: 19 March 2025, 14:10

Read more: Teen who killed family spent a year plotting school attack

A teenage triple murderer who killed his mother, brother and sister and wanted to be Britain's deadliest school shooter has been jailed for a minimum of 48 years.

After murdering his mother and siblings Nicholas Prosper, from Luton, plotted to carry out "killing for the sake of killing" at his former primary school in a bid to become a notorious mass murderer.

In the early hours on Friday 13 September last year, a neighbour heard Prosper shoot dead his family members.

Nicholas Prosper says 'it's not murder' as he's arrested over Luton killings

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) say that Prosper had also been planning to carry out a mass shooting that very same morning at his former school, St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Luton.

He had been planning to do this for a year, and has since admitted in prison that he wanted to cause the "biggest massacre of the 21st century" and be "more famous than Sandy Hook."

Prosper, 19, refused to attend Luton Crown Court on Wednesday but was then ordered to be brought to the sentencing, the first of a slew of delays.

His father wept in court as Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb described the morning of the killings.

She said: "When your mother realised you had a gun she struggled with you before you shot her in the head in the hallway."

CCTV shows teen murderer Nicholas Prosper buying a gun in car park

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Nicholas Prosper had blood on his hands, clothes and glasses when found by police.

He later admitted in custody to joining a "paedophile Twitter group", and had disposed of two mobile phones following the killings to protect his online friends from being arrested, the judge told the court.

She added the defendant was "inappropriately cheerful" after being detained by police.

Propser planned to carry out "a murder spree for the sole purpose of glorifying the perpetrator in the history of mass killers."

Prosper was fascinated by school massacres, and police found extensive searches of this on his devices after they arrested him.

The teenager illegally acquired a shotgun with over 30 cartridges the day before the murders by creating a fake gun certificate.

He planned to turn up to his former school on the morning of Friday 13 September, wearing a school uniform and yellow cap as a disguise, before shooting dead pupils at the school.

However, Prosper’s mother found him in his brother’s room in the early morning before he left home to commit the attack, which foiled his plans.

Prosper then shot dead his mother, brother and sister and gunshots could be heard by a neighbour in the nearby flat.

Police were called and later found Prosper en route to the school, with a loaded shotgun and 30 gun cartridges hidden in a bush nearby.

Prosper was arrested for acting suspiciously, with his arm in the air, before he was able to carry out the mass school atrocity.

The police and CPS believe Prosper was motivated by notoriety and wanted to be the most famous school shooter of the 21st century.

Prosper had not been charged or sentenced for any terror offences, as there is no belief he wanted to commit these atrocities for the religious or political reasons needed to meet the terror definition.

He had not been known to police or previously referred to Prevent.

Police say he had an obsession with violent video games, and also found that he possessed indecent images of children.

Prosper has since told a mental health practitioner that he had planned to kill himself after committing the mass school shooting.

A psychiatrist has stated that Prosper has traits of someone on the autistic spectrum, and that he has no expressed any remorse or empathy since being in prison.

However, the CPS stresses that they believe it is notoriety, and not any mental health related problems, which drove Prosper to plan and commit these attacks.