Nicholas Prosper had planned to kill at least 30 children and two of their teachers at his former primary school, Luton Crown Court heard.
The court heard that Nicholas Prosper had undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but displayed “extreme lack of empathy with others and an extreme lack of remorse” that cannot be explained by ASD alone.
After the murders, at around 5.30am, he hid the loaded shotgun in a black and yellow holdall in some bushes in playing fields in Bramingham Road, Luton, and hid his phones in undergrowth. Prosper hid for around two hours, before flagging down police and showing them where he had hidden the weapon, along with 33 cartridges.
The court heard that he had managed to buy the shotgun by making a fake firearms certificate and deceiving a private seller.
“To carry out his plans he had made a high-quality forgery of a shotgun certificate or licence, which he used together with other lies to make the seller believe that this was a lawful sale,” prosecutor Timothy Cray KC said.
“This included learning enough background detail so that he, the defendant, could sound like someone with a legitimate interest in owning a shotgun for clay pigeon shooting. In truth of course, he obtained the gun as a murder weapon, which he used to kill his family and which he was intending to use at the primary school.”
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