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British troll’s Facebook threat to kill 200 US schoolchildren results in a two year prison sentence

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

July 9, 2013 | 2 min read

Reece Elliott has been jailed for two years and four months after posting a series of threatening messages on Facebook following the Sandy Hook shooting.

"My father has three guns. I'm planning on killing him first and putting him in a dumpster. Then I'm taking the motor and I'm going in fast. I'm gonna kill hopefully at least 200 before I kill myself. So you want to tell the deputy, I'm on my way," he wrote, under a pseudonym, in December 2012.

Using the same pseudonym, he also posted the threat: "I'm killing 200 people minimum at school. I will be on CNN."

Elliott was sentenced at Newcastle crown court today, 9 July, after admitting communications offences.

His remarks caused more than 3,000 children to be kept home from school in Warren County, Tennessee, under the advice of cautious local authorities.

Gary Buckley, prosecuting, told the court: "He said he was a part-time troll. He said he decided to post offensive comments to see what kind of reaction he could provoke.

"He confirmed he did post the postings on Facebook and therefore did make these threats but he didn't expect the threats to be taken seriously and didn't expect them to cause the reaction they did."

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