Teenager admits making bomb threats that closed 400 schools and grounded US plane
Vulnerable and bullied 19-year-old was groomed in ‘dark online world’ and manipulated, say parents
A TEENAGER from Hertfordshire was behind a series of bomb threats that led to 400 schools being evacuated and a flight grounded in San Francisco, a court has heard. George Duke-cohan, 19, was arrested after he admitted to carrying out a bomb-threat hoax that resulted in thousands of pupils and staff having to walk out of British schools in March this year.
The teenager was also involved in the production of a mass email to schools in the UK and the US claiming that pipe bombs had been planted on the premises, despite being under investigation at the time.
Last month the hacker group Apophis Squad claimed responsibility for a flight from the UK to San Francisco being grounded after Mr Duke-cohan posed as a worried father whose daughter was on a hijacked plane.
Now the parents of Mr Duke-cohan have told The Daily Telegraph that their son was targeted and “groomed” online by Apophis Squad because of his vulnerabilities and being repeatedly bullied at school.
His mother, Mireya Duke-cohan, 48, said: “When he was asked by police why he did it, he said it was down to peer pressure. He slipped into this online world that is very dark and was groomed. It’s grooming in a different nature that no one really understands yet because it’s so relatively new.
“They get led into it through games like Minecraft and other games that are played online, and it all starts very innocently in one of these games and ends up with them being told to do bigger and bigger things.”
In a recording of one of the calls that was made while the plane was in the air, Mr Duke-cohan takes on the persona of a worried father and claims his daughter contacted him from the flight to say it had been hijacked by gunmen, one of whom had a bomb. On arrival in San Francisco, the plane was quarantined as all 295 passengers remained on board while authorities searched the plane.
Mr Duke-cohan, who was arrested on August 31 and has been remanded in custody, pleaded guilty at Luton magistrates’ court to three charges of making hoax bomb threats. He will appear at Luton Crown Court on September 21.
Mrs Duke-cohan said her son was “very remorseful” for his actions, and that he only did it because he was being manipulated. His father, Gary Dukecohan, said: “It’s grooming by serious people behind the scenes.”
National Crime Agency senior investigating
‘They get led into it through games like Minecraft’
officer Marc Horsfall said: “George Duke-cohan made a series of bomb threats that caused serious worry and inconvenience to thousands of people, not least an international airline. He carried out these threats hidden behind a computer screen for his own enjoyment, with no consideration for the effect he was having on others.”