3 years’ jail for bomb hoaxer who targeted thousands of schools
A TEENAGE loner who launched a terrifying bomb hoax campaign that caused the evacuation of 400 schools was jailed for three years yesterday.
George Duke-Cohan, 19, caused ‘havoc’ when he sent out emails, some in Arabic, claiming a student was on the premises with explosives.
He was identified and arrested but while under investigation he made a similar threat, sending 24,000 emails to schools and colleges in Britain and the US.
He also phoned in a fake report to San Francisco International Airport about an aircraft being hijacked.
When arrested at his home, the student said: ‘I thought this was going to happen. I was expecting it.’
Yesterday, at Luton Crown Court Judge Richard Foster told him: ‘You knew exactly what you were doing and why you were doing it and you knew full well the havoc that would follow. You were playing a cat-and-mouse game with the authorities … for your own perverted sense of fun in full knowledge of the consequences.’
The judge said the sentence had taken into account the fact that Duke-Cohan, who admitted three charges of making bomb hoax threats, has autism spectrum disorder. One of the schools affected was the exclusive Marlborough College in Wiltshire, which received a threat suggesting the teenager had been inspired by the Columbine High School massacre.
The message warned: ‘A male student will be sent into your campus as you start the day. He will look normal but what is in his bag is a bomb. We follow in the footsteps of our two heroes who died in the Columbine High School shooting.’
Fifteen died, including the two teenage perpetrators, in the 1999 massacre in Colorado. DukeCohan – described as a lonely schoolboy who had been bullied – was studying for a diploma in IT at West Herts College, near his home in Watford, when he was identified as being behind a ‘denial of service’ hacking attack on the college’s website in October last year.
Three months later he was responsible for a bomb threat at the college, which led to 2,500 students and staff being evacuated. Hertfordshire Police dealt with him using a ‘community resolution’, but in March he sent emails to more than 1,700 schools and colleges in the UK threatening to set off a device unless a ransom was paid. Four hundred were evacuated.
One email said: ‘We’ve sent in a student with a bomb. The bomb is set to go off in three hours’ time ... if you do not send $5,000.’
Duke-Cohan was arrested days later, but the following month 24,000 emails were sent to schools and colleges in the UK and the US. He was arrested again and released on bail with the condition he did not use electronic devices.
But in August he rang San Francisco International, claiming to be a man whose daughter had called him from the flight to say armed men had hijacked it and had a bomb. A security operation was mounted when the jet landed before it became clear it was a hoax.