Lyburd, of Newcastle, was today jailed for life with a minimum of 8 years

A judge today jailed a teenage loner for life - with a minimum of eight years - after deciding it was 'only a matter of time' before he carried out a Columbine-style massacre at his former college.

Liam Lyburd, 19, who is skilled at computing, planned to launch a murderous attack at Newcastle College in Newcastle upon Tyne last year after he was kicked off his course for bad behaviour.

He retreated into a reclusive online world, rarely leaving his bedroom, and amassed a 'kill bag' and formidable weapons including pipe bombs, a Glock pistol and 94 hollow-tipped expanding bullets.

He purchased the lethal devices from his room, under the nose of police, after sourcing them from the 'dark web', and even captured chilling photos of himself brandishing the gun in a black mask.

Jailed: Liam Lyburd (pictured in his mugshot), 19, who plotted to carry out a Columbine-style massacre at his former college with a 'kill bag' of deadly weapons was today jailed for life with a minimum of eight years

Arrest: Lyburd, who is skilled at computing, grins as he is taken into custody by a police officer in November

Target: The teenager planned to launch a murderous attack at Newcastle College (pictured) last year after he was kicked off his course for bad behaviour. However, he was caught before he could carry out the plot

Lyburd, a Valium addict, was only caught and arrested when police were tipped off about his evil plot by a woman whom the teenager had been speaking to on Facebook, who lives in Australia.

Today, the reclusive social misfit was imprisoned at Newcastle Crown Court for life after admitting possessing the weapons and being found guilty of having them with the intent to endanger life.

He was ordered to serve a minimum term of eight years before he can even apply for parole.

Sentencing Lyburd at the court on Newcastle's Quayside, Judge Paul Sloan QC said he was in no doubt that the teenager would have carried out his planned attack had he not been found out.

Addressing Lyburd - who gave no reaction as his sentence was read out - Judge Sloan said: 'Hearing the evidence in this case was, to say the least, a chilling experience.

'Your emotional coldness and detachment and your lack of empathy to others was self-evident.

'The level of danger to the public posed by you is high. Moreover, at this stage, no real estimate can be given of the length of time you will remain a danger.'

He told the teenager that if the woman he had been speaking to had not tipped off police to his devastating plot, 'it was only a matter of time before you would have put your plan into action'.

He added that it could be 'a long time' before Lyburd was considered safe enough for release.

Chilling: This photo of Lyburd dressed in a black mask and brandishing a gun was recovered from his laptop

Lethal plot: Lyburd had admitted nine charges relating to making five pipe bombs and two home-made explosive devices, and possessing a 9mm Luger Calibre Glock gun (pictured), ammunition and CS gas

The court heard Lyburd planned to commit the massacre at Newcastle College which he had once attended

Police were alerted to Lyburd's murderous plans in November by the woman, who was concerned about Facebook posts the teenager had made talking about launching a deadly attack.

He had told one friend during a series of sinister internet posts he planned on 'going down in style', while warning in another note he would show 'no mercy' to his innocent victims.

Because the recluse had never come onto the police's radar, officers could so easily have missed their chance to stop the former student from acting out his crazed fantasy and attacking the college.

Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Debbie Ford, of Northumbria Police, today praised the actions of the woman, saying she had 'saved lives' by tipping off police to the planned massacre.

'Lyburd was not known to the force for anything in particular, and without that one contact from that member of the public Northumbria Police wouldn't have gone to that address that day,' she said.

No-one disrespects me and gets away with it. I'll teach you people a little lesson on respect with my 9mm jacketed hollow points. It's time for extreme civil disobedience Liam Lyburd, computer document

'It's very difficult to say what could have happened, but bearing in mind what he had available to him he had the capability and capacity to cause serious harm.

'That makes him in our eyes a very dangerous individual.

'He was convicted on evidence he had these items with the intent to cause serious harm.

'Fortunately he was unable to carry that out.'

After receiving the tip-off, police raided Lyburd's bedroom and found the cache of weapons, as well as his 'kill bag' - containing a set of overalls, a mask, boots and pipe bombs - and incriminating evidence on his laptop.

It later emerged Lyburd had bought the components for the weapons, which he then assembled himself, by stealing web currency Bitcoins and accessing strangers' Paypal accounts on the internet.

The loner, whose Internet names included 'The Joker' and 'I Love my Anger', also had a machete.

Following the raid, a computer specialist recovered a deleted file from Lyburd's computer in which he wrote about getting vengeance on the college which had kicked him out two years before.

It said: 'You people ruined my whole life, don't expect me to show mercy today.

'No-one disrespects me and gets away with it. I'll teach you people a little lesson on respect with my 9mm jacketed hollow points. It's time for extreme civil disobedience.

Loner: Lyburd (pictured during his arrest) gave no reaction as Judge Paul Sloan QC sentenced him today

Deadly: When police discovered Lyburd's cache of pipe bombs around 50 nearby homes had to be evacuated

Under guard: Police guard the Newcastle home of the college reject at the time of his arrest last November

'Fantasy will become reality today for sure. Where the mind goes the body will follow and, yes, people will die, there's no question about that.'

Officers also found a series of webcam pictures Lyburd had taken of himself dressed for combat, donning a black mask and outfit and armed with a Glock and a knife.

As Lyburd was taken away by police, he grinned, laughed and told officers they had saved lives, preventing what would have otherwise been a massacre at one of the UK's largest colleges.

The former student boasted after his arrest: 'I wanted to kill them people...there's no question'.

During today's sentencing, Nick Dry, prosecuting, told the court that psychiatrists could not specify a time when Lyburd would cease to be a danger to the public.

While he has been in jail awaiting sentence, the teenager has repeated his threats to shoot people, although he said he would not use bombs, he added.

Anne Richardson, defending, however said that Lyburd's comment was a calculated attempt to get out of sharing a cell. After being isolated in his bedroom in Hamilton Place for several years, he has 'struggled' with being in close proximity with others, she added.

Emergency: Officers surround the property after Lyburd was taken into custody for the Columbine-style plot

Investigation: During today's sentencing, Nick Dry, prosecuting, told the court that psychiatrists could not specify a time when Lyburd would cease to be a danger to the public. Above, officers outside Lyburd's home

Response: After police were tipped off about his online rambling's they raided Lyburd's house which led to an evacuation. Above, officers are pictured assuring members of the public following the raid last November

Lyburd had no 'terrorist ideation', Miss Richardson said, and no links to any group or cause.

He was immature, she said, and had smiled for the cameras when he was led into the magistrates' court for his first hearing.

Miss Richardson said he had told officials since then: 'I did enjoy the attention but now I am just very embarrassed.'

She urged the judge to hold back from a life sentence, saying a 19-year-old would find it 'abhorrent'.

Psychiatric reports found that Lyburd had no acute mental illness, although one found he had schizoid traits, shown by his emotional coldness, detachment and lack of friends, Judge Sloan said.

Your emotional coldness and detachment and your lack of empathy to others was self-evident Judge Paul Sloan QC

He immersed himself in a cyber world and developed a love of violent films and an obsession with the Batman villain the Joker.

He had a 'pent-up anger and a search for vengeance which the cyber world allowed him to achieve', Judge Sloan said.

These traits did not stop him from understanding what he was doing, he added.

In addition to the Australian woman, Lyburd, who also went by the name Felix Theodore Burns online, had been communicating with several other young women via the Internet.

He had struck up a close bond with a woman in Iceland, exchanging messages with her on Skype.

Some of the messages were sexual but many were about his depraved desire to kill and his hatred of people, the court heard.

One message said: 'You will see me on the news covered in blood with my brain on the other side of the room.'

Another read: 'I'm going to die along with my friends in school. It's so sad my life. I'm going to kill my mum and the kids in my school - it's going to be amazing.'

'A dangerous man': Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Superintendent George Duff (pictured), who led the investigation, said: 'Lyburd is a dangerous man who intended to cause serious harm'

Talking to the press: 'He at no point has shown any remorse for what he intended to do. By not admitting his wrongdoing in the first instance shows the utter lack of consideration for those he intended to harm,' said Duff

He also made reference to Anders Breivik, the Norwegian who massacred 69 students in 2011, and posted a tribute to American school shooter Jaylen Fryberg, the jury was told.

And he claimed he planned to kill his own mother.

The court also heard how warped Lyburd discussed shooting commuters on the Metro and using poisonous gas on the region's trains.

His Icelandic friend attempted to persuade him to abandon his murderous plans, but Lyburd refused.

In the days prior to the planned massacre, Lyburd tweeted Newcastle College to make sure it would be open on Monday, November 3, because of construction works he'd seen going on.

The great irony here is that the sheer complexity of this plot does demonstrate that Mr Lyburd is actually a very intelligent young man, albeit deeply troubled John Dilworth, CPS lawyer

However, when the day came Lyburd messaged the Australian friend saying: 'I'm not going to do it today, I just can't.'

Lyburd had earlier admitted nine charges relating to making five pipe bombs and two home-made explosive devices, and possessing a 9mm Glock gun, the hollow-point ammunition and CS gas.

The teenager, from Newcastle, had been convicted by a jury of eight charges of possessing those items with an intent to endanger life at the college following a July trial.

During the trial the Lyburd claimed he was nothing more than an Internet troll who intended to cause panic with his sickening internet posts, but never planned to cause real harm.

He gave the court an insight into his life, saying he feared leaving the house and lived on Dominoes pizzas he ordered off the Internet and got delivered to his door.

Lyburd, who smiled and laughed to himself during the trial, told the court: 'Truthfully, I was lonely.'

But the prosecution described how there was a record of Skype conversations between Lyburd and an Internet friend, during which he told the woman of his acquisition of a gun and ammunition.

'Those were items the defendant accepted in interview he had bought using Bit Coins, the decentralized internet currency, from the dark or deep web, the black market where illegal commodities are know to be traded,' Mr Dry said. 'He also admitted to test firing the weapon.'

Protecting the public: Psychiatric reports found that Lyburd had no acute mental illness, although one found he had schizoid traits, Judge Sloan said. Above, an official takes notes outside Lyburd's home last November

'Saving lives': Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Debbie Ford (pictured), of Northumbria Police, said today that the member of the public who first alerted detectives to Lyburd's murderous plot had 'saved lives'

'He discussed shooting commuters on the Newcastle Metro system, stating that he would be on Valium at the time. HE said he had 95 rounds of ammunition and also planned to use poison gas on a train, resorting to his machete and knives in the event that his gun jammed.'

The estate where Lyburd lived with his mother and sister near Newcastle United's stadium was cordoned off for days after the raid while police carried out searches.

Today's sentencing has come as a senior CPS lawyer has said that if Lyburd had applied his obvious 'intelligence' to his studies instead of his plot he might not have been thrown off his course

Speaking after the hearing, John Dilworth, deputy chief crown prosecutor for CPS North East, said: 'The great irony here is that the sheer complexity of this plot does demonstrate that Mr Lyburd is actually a very intelligent young man, albeit deeply troubled. Had he applied that intelligence to his studies at the college, he may never have been thrown off his course in the first place.

'However, he was unable to accept how his own actions had contributed to his expulsion and his mind twisted those events into a personal attack on himself, for which he swore a violent and bloody revenge.

Kicked out: Lyburd had been studying Math and English at Newcastle College (file picture) in Scotswood Road for only five weeks when he was removed due to his disruptive behaviour and poor attendance

'I commend the actions of those with whom Mr Lyburd had been speaking online and who reported his increasingly disturbing comments to police.

'It is chilling to think what the consequences may have been in this case had it not been for them.'

Also speaking after the case, Detective Superintendent George Duff, who led the investigation, said: 'Lyburd is a dangerous man who intended to cause serious harm.

'He at no point has shown any remorse for what he intended to do. By not admitting his wrongdoing in the first instance shows the utter lack of consideration for those he intended to harm.'

He went on to thank people in the community for their cooperation.

'Community vigilance plays an important role in policing our communities and we encourage anyone with concerns to contact police straight away,' he said.

Lyburd had been studying Math and English at Newcastle College in Scotswood Road for only five weeks when he was removed due to his disruptive behaviour and poor attendance.

The court heard how the teenager had enjoyed the initial attention after his arrest.

However, he later felt 'embarrassed', it was said.