‘Lessons need to be learned from massacre plot’

Inquiry follows conviction of teenagers

A FORMER Children’s Commissioner for England has said lessons “needed to be learned” following a lengthy inquiry into the case of two teenagers who plotted to carry out a Columbinestyle shooting rampage at a North Yorkshire school.

Professor Maggie Atkinson has also announced a series of recommendations from a lessons learned inquiry into the events leading up to interventions with Northallerton schoolboys Thomas Wyllie and Alex Bolland and their families.

The recommendations will be published more than two years after the boys were convicted of conspiracy to murder.

The move by the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (NYSCP) follows repeated calls to publicly explain the circumstances ahead of the teenagers’ arrests three days before Halloween in October 2017.

Parents in Northallerton have claimed that they were issued with misleading information by a North Yorkshire County Councilmaintained school before antiterrorism police arrested the two pupils.

They have said they were frustrated by the lack of answers provided by officials.

Prof Atkinson, who is the partnership’s executive chairwoman and independent scrutineer, said: “I have been kept informed in detail of all the work done by every service and agency concerned

with this tragic and complex case.

“By law, I must seek concrete and detailed assurance that work such as that involved in this review is completed appropriately, professionally and sensitively.

“I am also clear that lessons that needed to be learned across the Partnership go on being learned, and improvements to professional practice have been – and will continue to be – made.”

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

The NYSCP, which includes North Yorkshire County Council, North Yorkshire Police and clinical commissioning groups, has confirmed its review into the case has been completed.

Jurors at the boys’ trial heard police investigating the teenagers found a diary espousing far-right wing ideology and the first page read: “If this is found I have committed one of the worst atrocities in British history or I killed myself.”

The trial also heard the teenagers were motivated by their “worship” of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who killed 13 people and themselves at Colorado’s Columbine High School in the United States in 1999.

In May 2018, Wyllie was handed a 12-year custodial sentence while his co-defendant was given 10 years after being found guilty of conspiracy to murder.

The NYSCP said 11 recommendations will be published next month with “an update”, but the report will remain confidential as it contains sensitive information. The NYSCP has previously stated the review would only be published if the findings were considered to be in the public interest.

‘If this is found I have committed one of the worst atrocities’

A diary entry found after the arrest of schoolboys Thomas Wyllie and Alex Bolland