Autistic boy, 14, ‘who became obsessed with the dark web was found hanged after warning teacher he planned to carry out a high school massacre’

• e-mail

An autistic boy obsessed with the 'dark web' was found hanged in his garden after warning his teachers he planned to carry out a high school massacre.

Stephen Mortimer, 14, from Calder Vale in Lancashire, had threatened to 'kill people' at his school and would speak of researching atrocities such as the Dunblane Massacre in 1996.

His body was discovered on January 4 after being reported missing by his parents, an inquest into his death heard.

Stephen Mortimer, 14, from Calder Vale in Lancashire, had threatened to 'kill people' at his school and would speak of researching atrocities such as the Dunblane Massacre in 1996

Stephen was 'very intelligent' but troubled and had been suspended from Ripleys Thomas Church of England Academy in Lancashire for five days due to fears for the safety of staff and fellow pupils.

He transferred to another high school shortly before he was found dead.  

The inquest in Lancaster was told the youngster - who was fascinated with computers - had first appeared to settle in at Ripleys.

However, in year nine staff became alarmed when he began to talk of harming himself and others and he was referred to a teacher who specialises in autism.

Principal Elizabeth Nicholls said: 'He started increasingly talking about suicide and detailed how he would carry it out. 

'He stated he would bring a gun and a knife in school and kill people. We felt computer science was a particularly stressful issue and asked him to drop that.

'But he bit the tip off a fine liner and swallowed a lot of the ink and we contacted his parents straight away. 

'He also became very fascinated about school massacres and verbalising the details of these in lessons. The school was very, very alarmed by his behaviour.

'He was drawing dotted lines on his wrists and writing 'cut here'. We took him seriously, we always took him seriously and there was affect of his behaviour on others. 

'In April the autism teacher said Stephen was an immediate safe guarding issue and I think she was concerned with his obsession with the dark web and trying to get on to all sites on the dark web.'

Mrs Nicholls met up with Stephen's parents about giving the teenager more specialist support. She also recommended he be referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services but she said the parents were unwilling to consent to a referral.

Stephen was 'very intelligent' but troubled and had previously threatened other students at Ripleys Thomas Church of England Academy in Lancashire (pictured)

But the hearing was told he made a specific threat to shoot a teacher and an email from an English teacher to Mrs Nicholls added: 'I've become increasingly concerned with Stephen and his increasing obsession with death and mutilation. 

'He gives detailed descriptions of enacting his plans. I believe he poses a safe guarding risk.'

The principal added: 'He dropped computer science and did seem better for a few days and then in the playground he had been seen acting very aggressively towards three boys. 

'A member of staff tried to get the implement off him and had to call another member of staff and they got a sharp piece of wood from him.

'The vice principal came along and Stephen talked about killing himself and asked if could he jump out of the window and even opened the window. I cannot tell you how alarming this was. 

'We rang mum and asked her to come in and collect him and take him home and we decided to give ourselves breathing space and gave him an exclusion of five days.

'My duty was to keep children safe and we were becoming worried as to how we could keep Stephen and other children safe. 

'There was a lot of disruption to lessons when someone would give a lot of verbal outbursts, that he would kill people in massacres and blood and brains and other things that was obviously massively distressing for other children.

'The trigger seemed to be the demands of the classroom. The computer science was the issue. This was a young adult now who had access to the web who told us he could get a gun.  

'We couldn't wait for something terrible to happen. We were trying to do all we could to help this young man see out his time at Ripley.

'The bottom line is he had a sharp piece of wood, acting aggressively to other children. He could look up all the things about massacres. 

'He was developing into a young adult, a very intelligent one, he was researching in detail all the awful things he would talk about in lessons. You have to think of the other children who are listening to these details.

'You must understand I have 1,700 pupils in school, I have to make sure they are safe. There were several mentions of guns and knives and there was a suggestion that he knew where to get a gun. He was not safe in the playground.'

Stephen's father Andrew, 53, an engineer said his son had been previously been bullied at the school but it had stopped after he spoke to the teachers.

He told the hearing: 'Of his friends in our rural area, I'm in the minority of not being a firearm owner. We had a conversation about ownership and I explained it was a safer country because of it. I referenced the Dunblane massacre and that's where I believe he would analyse.

'He was an analyst, we restricted how long he spent on the computer and he hated us for it. We changed everything at home, we agreed with the school that was what we were going to do. We also relocated his computer so he could be supervised.

'Computer science was clearly central to his future skill set as it is with mine now and he was desperately frustrated he was not getting it. We were not going to give up easily. Unfortunately it took a long time to pull the plug in it and we should have done it sooner.'

Lynn McCann, a specialist autism consultant who worked with Stephen said: 'There was an incident where he threatened me verbally but I didn't recognise it as a threat, I understood where he was coming from and knew when to step back.

'I didn't personally feel threatened. He seemed to despair of, his future and whether there was any point to education. We talked a lot about the dark web and what he was looking for and why he was looking for it. He was confused about life. He was working all that through, he was growing up and there's a lot in your teenage years to figure out about the world.

'He was talking about not being allowed in to class and was quite angry. He said ''I don't mean it when I tell them I'm going to kill them''. Part of his autism is understanding other people's thoughts which is quite difficult.

'We spoke about the Iraq war, roles of religion and the importance of education and he seemed to engage. He was really, really worried about the world and the state of it. I saw an improvement but will agree sometimes his mood of despair would return.

'We did talk about guns but he did do a lot of thinking out loud and he didn't understand the affect that had on others. Going into class rooms was extremely stressful for Stephen and the school doesn't have a lot of options. He had some very grown up concerns about the world.'

Sgt Simon Coast from Lancashire Police said officer were not contacted by the school about Stephen threatening other pupils with a piece of wood but he added: 'My opinion on this is that it's not something that would have been relayed to us, it's something that can be dealt with internally.

'There will be scuffles and altercations every hour of every day and we would not be in a position to investigate that. The school is expected to almost be a gatekeeper to decide what gets told to us. All we deal with is crime and take people to court. The last thing we want to do is criminalise children.'

The inquest continues.