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16 August 2018 / Dr Michael Arnheim
Issue: 7806 / Categories: Features , Criminal
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A conspiracy too far?

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Dr Michael Arnheim takes issue with the conviction of two schoolboys for conspiracy to murder through a Columbine-style shooting

  • Two 15-year-old boys were convicted of conspiracy to murder teachers and pupils at their school in imitation of the 1999 Columbine massacre—even though they had no weapons and had evidently never handled a firearm.
  • The statutory law of conspiracy, drafted on the basis of a Law Commission recommendation, is not fit for purpose.
  • The Law Commission’s Draft Bill (2009), published as part of a moribund codification programme, is even worse.

On 20 July 2018, two 15-year-old boys, Thomas Wyllie and Alex Bolland, were convicted of a conspiracy (when aged 14) to murder teachers and pupils at their own school by shooting them in a re-enactment of the Columbine school massacre in Colorado in 1999. They were sentenced to 12 and 10 years’ imprisonment, respectively.

In sentencing, the judge emphasised: ‘The conspiracy to murder of which you have been convicted was not wishful thinking or a fantasy. It was a real plot:

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