Teen arrested over ‘Dunblane-style’ massacre tweet

A SCHOOLBOY who posted on the internet that he might carry out a Dunblane-style massacre was arrested in an early morning raid after his tweet was spotted by a parent whose child was killed in the 1996 atrocity, a court heard yesterday.
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Mark Inglis, 16, tweeted “Might go into school on Monday with a slug gun like that c*** fae Dunblane and just start taking bodies.”

He signed it with his initials MI, adding an X for a kiss.

Stirling Sheriff Court was told the tweet was spotted almost immediately by Dunblane resident John Crozier, whose five-year-old daughter Emma was one of 16 children, and their teacher, shot dead by Thomas Hamilton at Dunblane Primary School in 1996.

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Lindsey Brooks, prosecuting, said Mr Crozier had been searching on Google for a friend in the Dunblane area when the tweet posting in the name of Mark Inglis came up. The comments were posted in October 2013. The depute fiscal said: “Mr Crozier was alarmed by the comments and concerned about public safety.

“It should be noted that Mr Crozier had a daughter who was a victim in the Dunblane shooting, and he contacted the police at 11pm.

“Efforts were made to trace the accused, and at twenty past four in the morning police attended at the accused’s home address as there were concerns he might have a firearm.”

Mrs Brooks said Inglis’ mother, who was woken in the raid, started to question her son in front of the police about what had happened, and he replied “Aye, I did it, it was on Twitter”.

Mrs Brooks said: “His mother continued to request an explanation and he said, ‘I wrote a lot of rubbish about shooting folk at school’.”

Inglis was arrested, and his house was checked for firearms. The court heard the “slug gun” was a reference to an air weapon, but that Inglis did not possess any airguns or firearms at all.

Inglis, of Glenboig, near Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, pleaded guilty to threatening and abusive conduct.

Defence agent Andy Gallen said: “The situation is that he had gone out with friends. It was their understanding that they had been invited to a party, but it turned out that the party had taken place the previous night.

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“With his friends he consumed some alcohol. He himself consumed two pints of Bulmer’s cider.

“He doesn’t normally drink, and it may have had a more exaggerated effect on him than on someone who is more used to the consumption of Bulmer’s cider. He went home and fooled about on his iPod.

“He didn’t weigh up the significance of what he was saying. He didn’t intend to cause to offence and alarm, but he now recognises it would very clearly have caused fear and alarm.

Sheriff William Gilchrist deferred sentence for reports until September.