A mentally disturbed teenager who smuggled a double-barrelled shotgun into school but did not go through with his planned shooting spree has been given a six-year custodial sentence.

The 15-year-old boy had loaded cartridges into the weapon and was "seconds away" from opening fire at Higham Lane School in Nuneaton, but he called 999 instead.

Warwick Crown Court was told a call handler "averted disaster" by talking the teenager into taking the gun apart during June's incident.

The youth, who cannot be named, admitted taking the weapon with him in order to harm people. He was also carrying 200 cartridges and a lock-knife.

He had taken the double-barrelled shotgun from a secure cabinet where it was legally stored by one of his relatives.


Judge Andrew Lockhart QC told him: "You had a face covering and a knife and you were making yourself ready to shoot at anyone. All who might have been a target would have been wholly innocent victims without any argument with you.

"Had you begun to shoot I have no doubt serious injury and death would have resulted and it is impossible for me to predict how many might have been hit.

"The event was, on your own admissions made at the time, just a moment away.

"A moment in time separated the pupils and staff of this school from being the subject of a terrible event and a shooting that would have taken a dreadful place in the history of truly wicked crimes committed in this country."

Defence barrister Delroy Henry admitted that while the incident started with "a loss of good sense", it ended after he called the police and followed their instructions "to the letter".

He told the court the boy was receiving mental health support to aid his rehabilitation.

The boy will serve up to half of his sentence in custody before being released on licence for remainder of the term.