A 19-year-old sentenced to a minimum of 49 years in prison for murdering his mother, brother and sister in Luton last year also intended to carry out a massacre at a local primary school, it has emerged during court proceedings.
After killing his family, Nicholas Prosper had planned to unleash a mass shooting at the Catholic primary school that he and his siblings attended, the <em>BBC</em> <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn8ld834398t"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">reports</mark></a>. It notes that he chose a Friday 13th date specifically – a date and day combination associated with bad luck and unfortunate events in Western-based superstition – and wanted to kill 30 pupils.
During the court ruling, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb noted that Prospe<mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-black-color">r "intended to unleash disaster on the community of Luton" and was "inappropriately cheerful" after being arrested. </mark>
The Labour leader of Luton Council, Hazel Simmons, has said counsellors will be made available to pupils, family and staff members at the primary school that was the intended target of Prosper's murderous plan.
Simmons described the details that came out in Prosper's sentencing as "deeply distressing, shocking and upsetting", the <em>BBC</em> reports.
"We are supporting St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School...as well as standing up wider support in the community for anyone that is distressed by the revelations," the council leader said.
"As troubling and concerning as these revelations are, it is important to remember that this individual was not able to cause any harm to the school and there are robust systems in place to keep children safe at school at all times."
A senior Bedfordshire Police officer has described the Luton killer has "truly evil", the <em>BBC</em> reports.
Detective Chief Inspector Sam Khanna focused attention on Prosper's victims: “Our thoughts today are first and foremost with Juliana, Kyle and Giselle and all who knew and loved them.”
The bodies of Prosper's mother, Juliana Falcon, 48; his brother, Kyle Prosper, 16; and his sister, Giselle Prosper, 13, were found at their home in September 2024.
"They should be [the ones] we remember, their names [that] we say, rather than the person who carried out these despicable murders and who intended to carry out an unimaginable level of harm to innocent school children," Khanna said.
"In my entire policing career, which has included many years spent investigating murders, I have never encountered anyone capable of such horrific acts whilst showing no remorse."
During the sentencing it was revealed that Prosper's plan would have seen him kill 34 people in total: his family members, a class of four- and five-year-old children at his old primary school, two teachers and then, finally, himself.
On the St Joseph's Catholic Primary School website, Headteacher Maureen Murphy <a href="https://www.stjosephsprimaryluton.co.uk/news/?pid=3&nid=1&storyid=115"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">said</mark></a>: “We were devastated to learn of the tragic death of our former students Kyle and Giselle and their mother Julianna. All children from the family attended St Joseph’s when they were younger and were a cherished part of our school community. At this time, our thoughts and prayers are with their family, friends and the wider community."
Kyle Prosper went on to attend secondary school at Cardinal Newman Catholic School; on its website the Luton secondary school <a href="https://www.cardinalnewmanschool.net/home/news-2/news-statement-19032025/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">stated</mark></a>: “Firstly, it is important to acknowledge that Juliana, Kyle and Giselle are foremost in our thoughts.
“We always knew that Kyle was a much-loved student who was known for his kindness and for simply being ‘a brilliant friend’.”
The statement continues: "Our immediate actions are to help each other through the coming days and weeks. Our community has already shown tremendous support for one another since the events of last September – and we will need to draw on this further as the details that have been shared in court are difficult to hear, and even harder to comprehend.
"While we believe we exhausted the avenues open to us to support this family, after such a tragedy we would not be human if we did not reflect on whether there was anything we collectively could have done differently.
“We would welcome being part of any review process that may take place in the future.”
The <em>BBC</em> reports that Nicholas Prosper had hoped to kill his family while they slept but his mother woke up and appears to have tried to confront her son.
A noisy struggle followed that was heard by Prosper's neighbours in the tower block, who then alerted the police, meaning the killer had to leave his home hours ahead of his planned schedule and of school opening times for the day.
The judge said that Prosper was not handed a whole life sentence partly because he was 18 years old at the time of the murders.
It was also because, she explained, "you were thwarted from completing your intentions, otherwise this case would have had a very different and even more appalling outcome".
She also noted that "this prosecution has resulted in guilty pleas".
Luton Crown Court heard how Prosper was motivated by a desire to achieve notoriety and had deliberately set out to surpass the death toll of 32 victims in the Virginia Tech shooting that occurred in 2007, the deadliest attack of its kind in US history, the <em>Daily Telegraph</em> <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/19/nicholas-prosper-sentencing-latest-news/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">reports</mark></a>.
<em>Photo: Artist rendering of Nicholas Prosper in court (screenshot from bbc.co.uk).</em>
