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A teenager who wanted to shoot up his high school and was found with explosive chemicals, bullets and blueprints stashed inside his family home has been released into the community on a judge’s orders.
The now-21-year-old was initially arrested in 2024 following a tip-off from the FBI about a post on Reddit that read “they don’t know they’re all going to die for bullying me” accompanied by a cartoon depicting a senior school class and a person standing next to it with a bag of firearms.
On Tuesday, prosecutor Jordan O’Toole told the County Court the man, who was 19 at the time of his initial arrest, had attended a high school in Melbourne’s south-east and wanted to study pharmacy or chemistry at one of the city’s major universities.
After the tip-off, police searched his family home and uncovered 500 rounds of ammunition in a desk and walk-in robe, ID cards, military tactical gear, cylinders of chemicals, and chemistry glassware.
The then teen also researched the cost of chemical warfare substances, detonators and fuses, and contemplated using a pressure cooker.
But the most disturbing find was a handwritten spiral-bound notebook containing homicidal diary entries.
“Before school starts I have a plan to … get invited to one of those graduation parties,” one entry read. “They can’t keep ignoring me. I need to do something about it. My main problem is to find a suitable weapon. I need to raise the game up a notch. Even as I write this I feel excited and can’t wait.”
A search of the teen’s phone uncovered a blueprint of his high school made on Minecraft named “school incident”.
Another entry said: “There will be no more forgiving. I’ll have to go through with it. If society refuses to allow me in … I have to bust that door down whichever way possible. Every possibility will have to be exhausted by the end. I’ve run out of excuses for everyone. I will not hold back.”
O’Toole said the explosive substances the then teen had were so highly sensitive they were not even used by the military due to the significant risk to people and structures.
The maximum penalty is five years’ jail for each of the two charges of possessing explosive substances without lawful excuse.
The man had twice been released during the police investigation, but following his third arrest, he was put behind bars on remand after a magistrate found his ability to cause harm could not be underestimated.
The court heard psychologist Michael Davis assessed the now 21-year-old and said the “emotionally cold individual” lived with a personality disorder and autism, which severely impaired his ability to feel empathy for others.
Davis said it seemed to soothe the teen to write about his violent fantasies against his classmates.
He said it was likely the man would remain fixated on chemistry due to his autism, but Davis didn’t believe his interest in explosives would lead him to massacre people.
Instead, his homicidal fantasies, Davis said, seemed to involve firearms and “wanting to kill the class of 2023”.
“I do believe he wants to have friends,” Davis said. “He’s never been able to make that happen because he’s so eccentric. He takes it out by writing about wanting to get revenge on them. There is a self-soothing aspect to these fantasies.
“I think it does make him feel better about himself when he can write about these. As long as it’s extreme, he’s drawn to it.”
The court heard the man had also researched other shootings, including the New Zealand mosque massacre.
The longer the man was kept isolated from others, the higher risk he was of developing schizo-related illness, he said, and urged the judge to redirect the man’s fixations into something good, including chemistry mentoring or a club.
“I don’t see [a] link with his chemistry obsession and homicidal revenge,” he said. “These are two distinct parts of him.”
The defence team said their client had spent more than a year in isolation and 677 days in total on remand as a young, first-time offender who required specialised supports.
They argued they had tried to resolve the case at almost every stage of the proceeding but until very recently his guilty plea offers had been rejected by the prosecution.
The judge agreed the offender had been punished enough, ordering he be released immediately.
“I don’t want him held there for another minute,” judge Douglas Trapnell said. “This should have been sentenced ages ago. This person has been languishing in protection for 677 days and you [the prosecution] want to give him more?
“Well, that’s not happening. The only thing left is to convict and discharge.”
A suppression order over the man’s name was first put in place in November 2024, despite opposition from lawyers representing this masthead.
It currently prohibits publication of the man’s name and the details of the high school and any education facilities connected to his crimes, with no end date listed.
Trapnell said he was unable to do anything about the order as it was made in a lower court.
“The magistrate’s order continues to operate, and there is nothing I can do about it,” the judge said.
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