Judge rules Riverland high school threat duo to be immediately released as they have ‘been in custody long enough’
Two teenagers who threatened to “shoot up” staff and students at a Riverland high school are to be immediately released from jail, as a judge rules they have “been in custody long enough”.
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- The pleas: ‘School massacre’ duo confess to lesser charges
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- The arsenal: Knives, swords and shopping-trolley body armour
Two teenagers who threatened to “shoot up” a Riverland high school have “been in custody long enough”, a judge says — and has ordered their immediate release.
On Thursday, the duo — who cannot be identified — smiled at their families from the dock of the Supreme Court as they were told that, after 18 months in custody, they could go home.
Supreme Court Justice Kevin Nicholson opted to give the pair credit for time served rather than backdating their sentences to their arrests in November 2017.
He ordered each of them serve a further six months imprisonment — but suspended those terms on condition of three-year, $500 good behaviour bond.
“You are both bedevilled by factors which, experience suggests, predispose a person to criminal conduct (including) a deep-seated hostility to your community,” he said.
“This makes it difficult to assess how you will conduct yourselves in the future.
“However, both of you show insight into the wrongfulness of your conduct and the harm it has caused so many people, and expressed real desire to better yourselves and not do such terrible things again.
“If you accept of the help that will be offered to you in the community, and avoid drugs and alcohol, your prospects should be seen as promising.”
Counsel for the duo, who negotiated plea bargains that took maximum life sentences off the table, had argued their clients should be immediately released.
They said the time they had already served, since their arrests almost two years ago, were sufficient penalty for two boys who had done no more than fantasise about revenge.
The duo, now aged 20 and 18, were originally charged with conspiring to commit mass murder at their school between October and November 2017.
Following their arrests, police alleged they were attempting to source firearms before bombing the school’s entrances, trapping staff and students, and then killing them.
They said the pair had already tested a molotov cocktail, manufactured homemade napalm and built hand-to-hand weapons and body armour.
In April, however, the duo pleaded guilty to aggravated counts of threatening life — a lesser offence carrying a maximum three-year prison term.
Their counsel asserted — and prosecutors accepted — there was no massacre plot, merely comments made while the duo were “dressed as school shooters” for Halloween.
They said the older boy was an “emo” who had filled his diaries with revenge “fantasies” and obsession with high school shootings, particularly the 1999 Columbine massacre.
The various weapons and armour, they said, were made by the 18-year-old — an aspiring blacksmith — not for any offensive purpose but for his hobby business.
They told the court the napalm was brewed to stoke his steelworking forge more quickly and provide greater heat.
On Thursday, Justice Nicholson said the duo had no intention to carry out their murderous fantasies.
“Your plan was to frighten, to terrify, to present yourselves … as ‘school shooters’ who meant business and were to be reckoned with,” he said.
“I’m satisfied that once you started to conceive of your plan, you jointly contributed to the creation of that plan — albeit, as it turned out to be, a fantasy.
“Your offending here is a serious example (of the crime) … each of you were behaving in such an abhorrent way.”
Justice Nicholson said the Riverland community were “shocked and terrified” not only by the threats, but by the rumours, police investigation and media coverage they sparked.
“You tapped into the fear that a community might experience an appalling mass-shooting of the type that has become all too common in the US,” he said.
“This is not a case in which an offender placed in fear a single individual — a significant section of the community was put in fear.”
He said each boy had experienced a “very sad and dysfunctional” upbringing, meaning neither had “developed to your full potential”.
Both, he said, had shown marked improvement since being arrested — and being kept away from drugs and alcohol.
The 20-year-old did not display psychopathic tendencies and had “expressed remorse, guilt and empathy”.
The 18-year-old had written a letter of apology, focused on his education and become “a role model” in youth detention, displaying a “capacity” for leadership.
“The most significant factor for reoffending is the risk you may return to substance abuse,” he said.
“Your time in custody has been very difficult … I expect it has gone a long way to teaching each of you an enduring lesson.”
Taking into account time served, he sentenced the 20-year-old to six months and 21 days’ jail, and the 18-year-old to six months and 19 days’ jail.
Those sentences were suspended on condition of three-year, $500 good behaviour bonds.
Neither of the duo spoke outside court.
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