'Bomb-plot boy wanted to attack City stadium'

Published by Manchester Evening News (8 September 2009)

Chris Osuh and Girish Gupta



TWO teenagers accused of
plotting a Columbinestyle
school massacre
talked about targeting Ikea and
Manchester City’s stadium as
well, a court heard.


Matthew Swift, 18, and Ross
McKnight, 16, both of Denton,
deny conspiracy to murder and
conspiracy to cause explosions.


Manchester Crown Court
heard extracts from internet
messages written by the pair,
where conversations about
mass murders are sprinkled
with chit-chat about Alton Towers
and cinema trips.


The jury was told how, in one
entry, Swift wrote ‘We should
extend Project Rainbow’ – the
pair’s alleged codename for
what the prosecution claims
was a plot to plant bombs in Audenshaw
High School and a
Denton shopping centre.


Swift, the court heard, added:
“I want to target Ikea too.”
McKnight was said to have replied:
“Do it all.”


Later, the jury was told, Swift
wrote: “I was thinking of targets
to attack like the City Stadium,
that would like be good.”


Swift also talked of killing
‘worthless humans’ by packing
a van with [chemicals] like ‘Tim
McVeigh [Oklahoma bomber]
did’, it was alleged.


The court heard Swift added:
“He killed 600 . . . awesome.”


The jury was then told of a
web conversation dating back
to September 2007, where
Swift described how he had
scared a girl from college by
talking of the ‘next Columbine’,
adding: “Because I’m gonna kill
everyone.”


A month later, the court
heard, he claimed that the spirit
of Columbine killer Eric Harris
was reincarnated in his own.


The jury was told he had said:
“His spirit was reincarnated
into mine. I know I’m Swift, but
Eric lives on inside of me.”


In another entry, he added:
“I’m just going to snap and go
on the rampage.”


The court also heard that a
946-page file on the Columbine
massacre, put together by investigators
at the Jefferson
County Sheriff’s Office, was recovered
from Swift’s computer
– along with documents on
making guns, computer hacking,
lock-picking and bypassing
alarm systems.


McKnight’s computer contained
Google searches for ‘machine
gun’, ‘shotgun’,
‘pump-action firearm’, ‘magnum
revolver’, ‘AK-47’, ‘Taliban
guns’, ‘SA-80 bullets’ and ‘beheading
video’, the court heard.


Pictures of the pair dressed
in camouflage gear were found
on Swift’s mobile phone.