Nicholas Prosper: Luton murderer planned to kill at least 30 children in primary school shooting

Luton triple murderer Nicholas Prosper said he had “no choice” and “had to” kill his family, a court heard today (March 18).

Last month Prosper, 19, pleaded guilty to shooting dead his mother and two siblings on September 13 – and had planned to carry out the “biggest event ever” by killing children at his former primary school.

The bodies of 48-year-old Juliana Falcon, Kyle Prosper, 16, and Giselle Prosper, 13, were found at their Marsh Farm home.

His family wiped away tears as they heard details of the killings at Luton Crown Court.

Prosecutor Timothy Cray KC said that Prosper’s “main wish was notoriety” and that he had acted alone.

And while police found multiple manifestos from mass killers in his home, his motivation was not linked to a specific ideology or belief.

Mr Cray said: “The evidence suggests that what drove him on most was the desire to be famous or infamous as a mass killer. This was killing for the sake of killing.”

And the court heard he had an “extreme lack of empathy with others and an extreme lack of remorse”. A forensic psychiatrist concluded Prosper had "psychopathic traits".

The prosecution laid out the timeline of the events and explained how he had planned the murders a year in advance.

After killing his family, it was Prosper’s plan to carry out a mass shooting at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, his former school, with his target mainly being the youngest children. After this, he had planned to kill himself.

Prosper wrote detailed layouts of the school, and a timeline of how he had planned the day to go. He signed it off with: “One of the biggest events ever”.

The court heard that Prosper started planning the attacks in August 2023, researching notorious mass murderers and school shootings. The prosecution explained that he knew the specifics of how many had been killed in school shootings and had aimed to surpass this.

His plans ramped up from April 2024 when he joined a gun website to start looking at how he could purchase his own firearm.

Two months later, he looked into making a firearms certificate. He had downloaded a blank license and looked up the name of a sergeant from Beds Police firearms unit to add to what the prosecution called a “‘high-quality forgery of a shotgun certificate”.

He also researched the school, had layouts of the classrooms, knew timings of lessons and had wanted to target a classroom assembly made up of 30 children aged four or five and their two teachers.

Video evidence found on his phone showed him wearing a yellow bucket hat, the bag which the gun was later carried in, and more yellow and black clothing. He was brandishing a piece of wood like a gun, and walking around the same flat he would eventually kill his family in.

The court was told how Prosper’s first attempt at buying a gun failed as the seller pretended it had been sold after becoming suspicious.

For his second attempt, he offered £150 over the asking price, as long as the seller would bring him 100 cartridges.

Prosper also created a document with the names of people at gun clubs in case the seller asked questions, and pretended to be into clay pigeon shooting to conceal his true motive.

Originally, he had planned to kill his family and the schoolchildren on September 12 but changed this to the 13th as it had “a good name on it”.

The court was told that Prosper picked up the gun from a seller in a Leabank car park – less than 24 hours before the murders.

He had taken a knife with him, and the court heard that he had planned to stab the seller and steal the gun if things did not go to plan.

The seller described him as being “polite and well speaking” and “reasonable”.

When he returned to the flat he made several disturbing web searches, including ‘How lethal are neck gunshots’, details of the murder of Sarah Everard and searches relating to necrophilia.

In the hours before the killings, Prosper had searched for pornographic images of an underage video game character and images of massacres.

The court was told he had planned to kill his family in their sleep and rape his sister’s body. But a post mortem showed that neither of the females found in the flat had been sexually assaulted.

Prosper’s twisted plans were thwarted when he was discovered by his mum, prompting what the prosecution called a “prolonged, violent struggle” with blood found across the flat.

Kyle, 16, had been stabbed over 100 times, 13-year-old Giselle was shot in the face and Juliana, 48, was shot in the top of her head.

A total of seven cartridges were found in the flat - six which were used on his family and a seventh used as a practice shot on a teddy bear the day before.

Neighbours heard a disturbance in the flat just after 5am. One witness said she knocked on the door of a flat and heard a boy groaning, and a gunshot.

Prosper left the flat at 5.33am, hopping over a wall to hide in a wooded area near Bramingham Road for over two hours. During this time, he uploaded a video he had taken the day before to Facebook.

Prosper put his fingers in his ears in the dock as the video was played, which showed him wearing a yellow bucket hat, speaking about a Walking Dead video game character and saying that he would shoot his sister in the face.

According to Prosper, “Mum messed [his plan] up” – and because he had left the flat earlier than planned, he believed the schools would have been locked down, preventing him from carrying out his planned mass shooting.

Police spotted Prosper waving at them on Bramingham Road at around 7.50am, and arrested him after realising he was involved in the murders.

Prosper then led them to the hidden gun and bag of cartridges.

While he was detained, he kept saying: “It wasn't murder” and asked the officers “how did you get into armed police?”.

He was taken to Luton police station and while in his cell, he asked staff: “Are you capable of what I have done?”

Prosper also said: “There was no choice, I had to do it”.

In his custody interview, he answered no comment to all questions.

While in his cell, he wrote detailed plans of his attacks, including floorplans of the classrooms.

One of the handwritten notes read: “Why so early? So I’d have time to cannibalise my family, and rape a woman at knife point before the shooting.” Another added: “Why?” Because I could.”

He was moved to HMP Bedford and while speaking with a nurse, he said: “I wish I had killed more.”

A statement was read to the court on behalf of Ray Prosper, the former husband of Juliana Falcon and father of Nicholas, Giselle and Kyle.

It said: "The pain of our loss will never be healed, this includes my whole family. Our lives will never be the same.

"When I heard the horrendous news that day, part of my soul died too. This is a lose-lose situation for us all and we have lost four family members."

He thanked the police and community for their support.

The sentencing hearing continues.