Riverland high school ‘massacre plot’: Alleged planned attack by two South Australia teens revealed in court documents

TWO teenagers concocted the Riverland school massacre plot just four days before the older boy threatened students with a weapon for the first time, court papers allege.

• Riverland community devastated by school massacre plot
• ‘He’s no psychopath’: massacre accused’s mother speaks out

TWO teenagers concocted the Riverland school massacre plot just four days before the older boy threatened students with a weapon for the first time, court papers allege.

Documents filed in two courts, and obtained by The Advertiser, provide the first insight into the duo’s alleged plan to kill the school’s students and staff.

The papers allege that, on four occasions between June and November, an 18-year-old approached students while armed with a weapon and threatened to kill them.

He and his 16-year-old co-accused, the papers allege, had “encouraged and persuaded” each other to act.

If convicted, each faces a maximum sentence of life behind bars — and prosecutors are considering having the youth immediately transferred to an adult court.

“(The teenagers) solicited, encouraged, persuaded, endeavoured to persuade or proposed to another person to commit murder of the students and faculty,” the papers allege.

On Wednesday, SA Police said they had thwarted an alleged plan by the duo to attack the school using guns, knives and homemade bombs before the end of this term.

It subsequently emerged several raids were carried out on the home of the 18-year-old, who was detained on November 7 and taken to Adelaide.

The Advertiser understands the 16-year-old faced the Youth Court last Friday in a late afternoon hearing.

Counsel for the youth asked a home detention bail report be ordered to assess his suitability for strictly-controlled house arrest.

That application will be heard next week — as a matter of policy, SA courts do not release details of an alleged offender’s criminal history to the public or media.

On Thursday, the 18-year-old’s mother told The Advertiser her son was not the “cold-hearted psychopath that he was painted out to be” and had “a heart of gold”.

On Friday, the teenager was charged with one count of solicit to murder.

The allegation was laid by prosecutors in addition to four existing charges of aggravated threatening to kill.

Adelaide Magistrates Court documents allege that, “without lawful excuse”, the 18-year-old “threatened to kill members of (the school’s) student body”.

He allegedly “intended to arouse a fear” that his threat “would likely be carried out” or was at least “recklessly indifferent” to the concerns of those threatened.

The documents allege he threatened students on three specific occasions between June 4 and August 1, between August 1 and September 30, and between October 1 and November 1.

They further allege he threatened students a fourth time, between October 20 and November 9 — it is unclear how that date range correlates with his arrest on November 7.

The offences are considered aggravated because the 18-year-old allegedly “used or threaten to use an offensive weapon” — the papers do not specify the type of weapon.

On Friday, counsel for the 18-year-old said their client would not be seeking release on bail.

Prosecutors said they were considering using the provisions of the Young Offenders Act to have the 16-year-old immediately transferred to the Magistrates Court.

They also asked the 18-year-old’s identity be suppressed, given his alleged co-offender’s name and image are automatically subject to publication bans due to his youth.

Magistrate Oliver Koehn agreed, imposing the suppression and remanding the 18-year-old in custody to face court in January.

Meanwhile, a friend of the 18-year-old has described him as a “good kid”.

“We (would) just hang out and do (silly stuff),” the teen’s friend told The Advertiser.

“I showed him how to play (instruments) ... (and on weekends) we’d play games, talk about stuff.

“He used to be chill as, we’d just go walking around the streets doing normal mates stuff.”

But then something changed.

“He did start getting weird, he was sort of sketchy. He was always anxious and he’d say ‘I want to go home’, but he never used to be like that,” the friend said.

The Advertiser understands the 18-year-old was dismissed from high school because of a poor attendance record.

He then enrolled in a separate program through TAFE to complete his Year 12 education.

Others friends close to the 18-year-old have also claimed he was recently involved a toxic relationship that was emotionally taxing.

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