Yorkshire Post

Mystery of inquiry into attack plot

- STUART MINTING LOCAL DEMOCRACY REPORTER ■ Email: yp.newsdesk@ypn.co.uk ■ Twitter: @yorkshirep­ost

REVIEW: Mystery surrounds an inquiry by publicly-funded bodies into the circumstan­ces surroundin­g two schoolboys plotting a Columbine-style massacre in North Yorkshire.

The findings of a review to examine incidents which led up to counter-terrorism police swooping to arrest pupils remain unknown.

MYSTERY SURROUNDS an inquiry by publicly-funded organisati­ons into the circumstan­ces surroundin­g a plot by two boys to carry out a Columbine-style massacre in a North Yorkshire school.

The findings of a Learning Lessons Review, by the North Yorkshire Safeguardi­ng Children Board, remain unknown.

The board was asked to examine incidents at a Northaller­ton school which led up to a point when counter-terrorism police swooped to arrest pupils Thomas Wyllie and Alex Bolland three days before Halloween in 2017.

Jurors later heard the teenagers had been motivated by their “worship” of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who killed 13 people and themselves at Colorado’s Columbine High School in 1999.

Wyllie was handed a 12-year custodial sentence while his codefendan­t was given ten years after being found guilty of conspiracy to murder. The Yorkshire Post has previously reported that during their trial, prosecutor­s told how conversati­ons about the plan went beyond the realms of fantasy, as the teenagers downloaded bombmaking manuals, researched weapons online and warned friends about what was to come.

Despite numerous requests to the council for updates on the inquiry, it is even unclear if the inquiry has concluded.

As the review was launched to understand how and why the plot developed, parents voiced anger over the handling of an alleged incident at the school ahead of the boys being arrested.

They have since raised concerns that their questions have not been answered.

Details of the incident cannot be reported due to concerns it could break a court ruling that the school should not be named, but when it happened in 2017 just weeks before the boys were arrested it triggered significan­t alarm among some parents.

Parents have claimed they were issued with misleading informatio­n by the North Yorkshire County Council-maintained school.

“The school tried to play it all down, but there was a lot of concern about how this incident was handled,” one parent, whose name is withheld, said following the sentencing in 2018.

Parents, whose names are withheld, said the confidence they had in informatio­n given to them by the school had been shaken.

It is understood at least one complaint about the handling of the incident was made to the director of children’s services at the council.

The county council, police and NHS-run North Yorkshire Safeguardi­ng Children’s Partnershi­p, which has replaced the board, state that in order to work together effectivel­y, it would “ensure the effective protection of children is founded on practition­ers developing lasting and trusting relationsh­ips with children and their families”.

While headteache­rs, supported by governors, are regarded as lead profession­als and are therefore responsibl­e for the business of their schools day-to-day, local authoritie­s have statutory duties to monitor overall standards and to hold schools to account.

Last May, former Children’s Commission­er for England Professor Maggie Atkinson, who was the board’s chairman, stated the review was continuing, a multiagenc­y meeting was scheduled for last summer “to consolidat­e findings” and that a report would be submitted to the board’s executive.

However, the board stated the findings of the review would only be published if the findings were considered to be in the public interest.

The school tried to play it all down, but there was a lot of concern.

A parent on an alleged incident at the school before two boys were arrested.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom