Revealed: Bedroom of British teenager accused of plotting a 'Columbine-style' massacre at a nursery school



Michael Piggin, 18, 'planned to bomb a school, a mosque and a court'

Jurors in his trial, for terror charges, were shown photo at the Old Bailey

Swastika flag can be seen hanging over map of the world

Military newspaper clips, Batman villain The Joker and more flags are visible

Piggins has admitted possessing petrol and pipe bombs

But he denies possessing items for terrorism and a terror manual



With a swastika flag and pictures of military aircraft on the walls, this is the bedroom where a neo-Nazi schoolboy plotted a ‘new Columbine massacre’, a jury heard yesterday.

Michael Piggin, 18, stockpiled homemade bombs, a terrorist manual and an array of weapons as he planned attacks on targets including his former school and the college where he was studying for his A-levels, the Old Bailey was told.

Pictures of his bedroom walls can be published after they were shown to the jury yesterday.

Disturbing: The image, shown to jurors at the Old Bailey, shows the bedroom of Michael Piggin, dominated by a Nazi flag, warlike newspaper cuttings and pictures of Batman villain The Joker

A Nazi flag has been put on top of a world map and there are pictures of military aircraft and weapons.



A poster showing The Joker, the villain from the Batman film The Dark Knight, is also displayed.

Prosecutor Gareth Patterson told the court: ‘This is the scene that confronted officers when they entered the room.’

Accused: Michael Piggin, who is accused of planning a massacre, can be named now that he has turned 18

Piggin’s unmade bed has a Union Flag duvet and pillowcase and the emblem of the Knights Templar can be seen on the wall.

He also has football posters on his walls together with Liverpool FC curtains.

Piggin, a supporter of the English Defence League, was arrested in February last year.

Although they are not shown in the photo, the court heard how he used his bedroom in Loughborough, Leicestershire to stockpile an arsenal of weapons.

They included a crossbow, machete, knives, air guns and pipe bombs and partially-assembled petrol bombs.

There was also a stab-proof vest, gas mask, blank firing pistols, three ball-bearing guns and an illegal terror manual, Mujahideen Poisons Handbook.

In diaries, which are covered with swastikas, he wrote ‘hit lists’ of six places he intended to ‘eliminate’ including the town’s university, council offices, a mosque and a cinema, and people he wanted to kill such as Muslims, teachers and school friends.

The court has heard that Piggin, who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, described plans for an armed assault on his former school in Loughborough as ‘the new Columbine’, a reference to the 1999 high school shooting in Colorado in which 12 pupils and a teacher were killed.

Teenager: Piggin, who can be named for the first time after turning 18 in January, stockpiled an arsenal in his bedroom, including pipe bombs, partially assembled petrol bombs and air rifles

He and two friends nicknamed themselves the Urban Revolutionary Army as they experimented with making and detonating homemade bombs, the court heard.

They put on balaclavas for videos of them preparing Molotov cocktails made from wine bottles and white spirit.



Inspiration: Piggin allegedly scrawled 'the new Columbine' in a notebook, referring to the American high school massacre, carried out by pupils Dylan Klebold (pictured) and Eric Harris

Piggin, described by the prosecution as ‘a would-be terrorist’, also allegedly wrote a message to one of his friends in December 2012 claiming he hit his mother after fighting the urge to shoot pre-school children in Loughborough.

‘After picking up my pistol I was walking past a nursery and felt the urge to shoot,’ he wrote.

‘I nearly gave in but I fought it and I hit my mum. We had an argument and she said some real mean stuff and I just flipped.’

Piggin also wanted to shoot Muslims at a mosque in Loughborough, the jury heard.

In a text message he said: ‘When you have got your new air pistol we will meet up and will both bring pistols and go for a bit of a shooting session down at the Mosque.



'I’m sick of being the outcast when there are some scum that enjoy a better life than me.’

Piggin said he ‘felt sorry’ for Seung-Hui Cho, who shot and killed 32 people in the Virgina Tech massacre, also in the US, in 2007.

Restrictions on reporting Piggin’s name were lifted after he turned 18 in January.

He and two other 18-year-old boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have already admitted possessing petrol bombs and pipe bombs.

Piggin denies possessing a terror manual and articles connected with terrorism.

Later yesterday the jury was discharged after two jurors dropped out because of personal problems. The trial is due to restart next week.

Plans: One of Piggins' alleged targets was Loughborough University

The Old Bailey heard that two of the teenager’s friends, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have pleaded guilty to possessing either petrol bombs or pipe bombs.



But Piggin, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, was set apart from his friends and driven by a paranoia of ‘Islamic invasion of Europe’.



Prosecutor Max Hill QC told the jury that the teenager’s plot and his haul of weaponry was not ‘child’s play’ but a deadly threat.



He said: ‘For an average young man in an average house in Loughborough or any town you care to name in England and Wales, you may think that is startling.



‘That is what this case is about.



‘The final item is a notebook containing information about the planning of attacks and study of explosive devices.



He said of the 1999 mass shooting: ‘That’s something that you’ll want to assess in this case given that this defendant, not in Colorado USA but in Loughborough England, was writing "the new Columbine" in his notebook.

Klebold and Harris, the mass killers in Columbine, were aged 17 and 19 at the time of those atrocities. What you have in this case is a 17-year-old.’



Piggin denies possessing items for terrorism and a terror manual, but admitted possession of petrol and pipe bombs and components of IEDs.

