Attempted Murder For Fun At School
'Teen had killer fantasies' The Courier-Mail, 23/7/2013

A YEAR 11 student penned a graphic story about a high school massacre for his English class a month before stabbing a fellow student at his Brisbane school, a court has heard.

The Brisbane Supreme Court was told the 17-year-old, who will be released next May, had fantasised about creating an horrific bloodbath — which he attempted to replicate in a frenzied knife attack on a girl, 14, in May last year.

The court was told the boy, who cannot be named, stabbed the Year 8 student at least a dozen times in a school toilet block just after 7am.

Prosecutor Michael Lehane said the boy had walked on to school grounds armed with three knives and a hammer with the intention of killing as many students as he could before killing himself.

The boy, now 17 but sentenced under Queensland Juvenile Justice Act 1992, was sentenced to four years in youth detention after pleading guilty to one count of attempted murder.

Justice John Byrne, who described the teen's behaviour as a worrying and terrifying indiscriminate act with no real motive, ordered the former student be released after two years. This means the boy, who has been in pre-sentence custody for more than 14 months, will be released next May.

Justice Byrne said it was disturbing that during the attack the boy dragged his "small, young" victim back into the toilets as she tried to flee in a bid to "finish her off".

"You have (now) shown what you are capable of," Justice Byrne said.

Mr Lehane tendered a pre-sentence report to the court which revealed, in part, the boy's obsession with staging a school massacre, killing a neighbour's dog and watching "snuff movies" — online films showing real-life executions.

He said on the day of the attack the boy was seen pacing outside the toilets before charging in and repeatedly stabbing the girl about the head, neck, body, arms and hands.

The girl's screams were heard by other students, who heard her yell:

"What are you doing? Somebody help me, please."

Mr Lehane said the girl broke free, only to have her attacker drag her back and stab her about 12 times.

She was soaked with blood when another student yelled out and the attacker dropped his knife and fled.

The court heard the boy — who was filmed by CCTV cameras at a nearby train station — walked into a police station about two hours after the attack and surrendered.

Mr Lehane said the ensuing police investigation revealed the boy had submitted a short story as part of an English assignment in which a teenager "massacres his own peers in a rampage and kills himself" a month or two before the attack.

The boy's barrister Mark Johnson said his client was an otherwise good and intelligent child, with good parents who saw no signs of their son's obsession for murder and violence.

The boy's family did not wish to comment about the case outside court.