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'Columbine' plot prosecution accused of wasting public cash
POLICE and prosecutors were strongly criticised for pursuing the case against two teenagers who were cleared of plotting a Columbine-style massacre at their own school.
A jury took just 45 minutes to clear Matthew Swift, 18, and Ross McKnight, 16, of planning to murder teachers and pupils at Audenshaw High School in Greater Manchester.
Following the verdicts, the barrister who defended one of the youngsters said it was an "unnecessary, heavy-handed prosecution" and an expensive waste of public money.
Both teenagers, who had applied to join the Army two months before their arrest, have spent six months in custody.
The prosecution claimed the best friends from Denton, Greater Manchester, were obsessed with Columbine killers Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, who murdered 12 students and a teacher and then killed themselves at their high school in Colorado in 1999.
It was alleged they planned a similar rampage which they named Project Rainbow and agreed to commit mass murder on the 10th anniversary of Columbine on April 20 this year. They were also said to have planned to plant a diversionary bomb at the Crown Point North shopping centre in Denton.
Much of the case was based on diaries kept by the pair which were full of hate-filled rants against the school and society.
The defence teams argued the entries were merely the teenage scribblings of two youngsters with over-active imaginations.
No explosives or firearms were discovered following their arrest in March when police were tipped off that McKnight made a drunken phone call to a female friend in which he boasted about carrying out Project Rainbow.
Unusually, outside Manchester Crown Court yesterday, the entire jury of seven women and five men waited for the defendants to leave the building as they waved to and smiled at Roderick Carus QC, who had successfully defended McKnight.
Mr Carus launched a scathing broadside against the Crown Prosecution Service for bringing what he termed such a "weak case" to the criminal courts.
"Why could they not take them to one side, slap them on the wrists and say 'Don't be silly boys, now go off and enjoy your careers in the Army'?
"I think this was an unnecessary, heavy-handed prosecution against two young lads who could have been dealt with in a more sensitive way.
"As the jury's verdict demonstrates, this was a waste of public money, hundreds of thousands of pounds."
He added: "There is a generation gap here, perhaps because we don't understand how young people live on their computers, that we fail to understand. Young people live on their computers; whereas we used to doodle on notepads, they will click on websites."
John Lord, reviewing lawyer at the Crown Prosecution Service, defended the decision to prosecute the teenagers.
"The case brought against Matthew Swift and Ross McKnight was, we believe, one that was as equally strong as serious."
Both teenagers denied conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property.
McKnight said: "This was just a fantasy. This was never a reality."
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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