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A UK teen , who murdered three family members and sought to surpass infamous mass shootings in the United States to become “the most renowned school shooter of the 21st century,” was sentenced on Wednesday to a minimum of 49 years in prison.
At the time of the murders, Nicholas Prosper was 18 years old. He used a shotgun to fatally shoot his mother, Juliana Falcon, aged 48, as well as his sister, Giselle, 13, and his brother, Kyle, 16, who suffered over 100 stab wounds, in their residence in Luton, north of London, in September 2024.
“Your goal was to achieve notoriety. You aspired to be recognized posthumously as the most famous school shooter of the 21st century,” stated Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb during the sentencing of the now 19-year-old.
Upon his arrest, Prosper revealed to the police his “Friday the 13th” scheme, which included plans to kill numerous four and five-year-old students and two teachers at a nearby primary school he had previously attended, followed by taking his own life. He expressed his intention to carry out an attack that would exceed the fatalities of the Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech shootings in the US, but his plan was thwarted when his mother awakened before he could execute the murders while his family slept. The ensuing struggle drew the attention of neighbors, who contacted law enforcement.
After murdering his mother, he placed a book titled How to Kill Your Family on her body.
“You explicitly aimed to imitate and surpass Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old who killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, in 2012,” the judge remarked.
“You targeted 34 fatalities, one more than the deadliest school shooting in recent US history at Virginia Tech in 2007,” she continued.
Prosper had created diagrams of the classrooms at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Luton and had written a note beside them stating “kill all.”
“You recorded yourself reenacting the killings in the kitchen,” the judge noted. Completely astonished
Prosper, who experts indicated exhibited signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder, received a life sentence with a minimum duration of 49 years.
Considering the time already served, he will be required to spend at least 48 years and 177 days in prison. “You are still extremely dangerous, and it is possible that you will never be released,” the judge remarked, noting that Prosper, who postponed the hearing by refusing to exit his cell, displayed no signs of remorse.
The court was informed that after being expelled from school in 2023, Prosper “lived in a virtual environment, opting for minimal real-life interactions with others.” An examination of his online behavior uncovered an obsession with “infamous murderers, individuals responsible for mass school shootings globally, and rapists,” the judge stated.
A statement from Ray Prosper, the father of the offender and former spouse of Juliana Falcon, was presented to the court, expressing that “the anguish of our loss will never be mended.”
“When I received the dreadful news that day, a part of my soul also perished,” he stated. “This is a situation where everyone loses, and we have suffered the loss of four family members.”
Bedfordshire Police Assistant Chief Constable John Murphy expressed that the local police department was “completely shocked and horrified by the appalling actions of this individual.”
