A UK teenager who killed three family members and plotted to surpass infamous US massacres in a bid to become “the world’s most famous school shooter of the 21st century” was sentenced to a minimum of 49 years in prison on Wednesday.
Nicholas Prosper, 19, carried out the murders in September 2024, using a shotgun to kill his mother, Juliana Falcon, 48, his sister, Giselle, 13, and his brother, Kyle, 16, who also suffered over 100 knife wounds, at their home in Luton, north of London.
At sentencing, Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb told Prosper, “Your ambition was notoriety. You wanted to be known posthumously as the world’s most famous school shooter of the 21st century.”
Prosper, who was 18 at the time of the killings, admitted that he had planned to massacre dozens of young children and two teachers at a nearby primary school he had once attended, before killing himself. He intended to outdo the deadly US shootings at Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech, but his plan was thwarted when his mother woke up before he could carry out the murders.
The struggle triggered by his mother’s waking alerted neighbors, who called the police. After killing her, Prosper placed a book titled How to Kill Your Family on her body.
“You explicitly sought to emulate and surpass Adam Lanza, the American who killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook in 2012,” Judge Cheema-Grubb said. “You aimed for 34 deaths, one more than the deadly Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.”
The court heard that Prosper had drawn detailed diagrams of classrooms at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Luton, with a note reading “kill all.” He had even filmed himself rehearsing the killings in his kitchen.
Though experts noted signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Prosper was sentenced to life with a minimum of 49 years, with time already served bringing his minimum sentence to 48 years and 177 days. Judge Cheema-Grubb described him as “highly dangerous” and suggested he may never be released.
In the months leading up to the killings, Prosper had withdrawn from school and immersed himself in an online world, where he became fixated on infamous murderers, mass shooters, and rapists.
Ray Prosper, the defendant’s father, expressed the deep, irreversible pain of losing four family members, stating, “When I heard the horrendous news that day, part of my soul died too. This is a lose-lose situation for us all.”
Bedfordshire Police Assistant Chief Constable John Murphy said the local force was “utterly shocked and appalled” by Prosper’s actions.
