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Police and prosecutors were strongly criticised today for pursuing a 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.
Both teenagers wept with relief as they were cleared and said they wanted to return to normal life after spending six months remanded in custody.
McKnight's father Ray, a serving police officer, said both his son and Swift had gone through “purgatory” and “absolute agony”.
Both teenagers denied conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property between November 2007 and 15 March this year. Prosecutors had 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 Swift and McKnight had planned a similar rampage, which they named Project Rainbow, and agreed to commit mass murder on the 10th anniverary of Columbine on 20 April 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 heard at Manchester Crown Court was based on diaries kept by the pair which were full of hate-filled rants against the school and society.
The defence argued that the diary entries were merely the scribblings of two youngsters with over-active imaginations. Swift told the jury his interest in Columbine was sparked while he was studying his A-levels when pupils were shown the Michael Moore documentary about the rampage, Bowling For Columbine.
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, the entire jury waited outside the court for the defendants to leave the building — waving and smiling to Roderick Carus QC, who had successfully defended McKnight.
Mr Carus was scathing about the prosecution, saying it was a “weak” case and neither youngster had taken any actual steps to make their fantasies reality.
He said: “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'?
“This was a waste of public money, hundreds of thousands of pounds.”
