A teenager who idolized serial killers and made threats to attack his college has been sentenced to three years and 11 months in custody.
Jagger Strang, 17 at the time of the offenses, boasted to fellow students about his plans to detonate a pressure cooker bomb at Stafford College. He also shared a "bingo card" of mass killers, homemade weapons, and videos of himself experimenting with chemicals and harming animals via Snapchat.
Three students reported Strang's behavior to the college, which subsequently closed early and contacted the police. Officers arrested Strang later the same day. A search of his home on September 9 of last year revealed gunpowder, thermite explosives, and instructional videos on making explosives and detonators, sourced from YouTube.
Authorities found that two days before his arrest, Strang had researched serial killers, including Axel Rudakubana, and methods for constructing a pressure cooker bomb. On the day of his arrest, he sent a video comparing himself to killers and posed with weapons. He also messaged an online user, stating he was "fine tuning my gunpowder," shortly before accessing a YouTube video on gunpowder creation.
Strang pleaded guilty to charges including possessing explosive substances, possessing terrorist bomb-making videos, threatening to bomb Stafford College, and possessing an offensive weapon. While he admitted to making threats to kill students, the prosecution stated they accepted he had no intention of actually building a bomb.
During sentencing at Birmingham Crown Court, the judge, Mr. Justice Wall, acknowledged Strang as an "isolated young man with problems at home." However, he emphasized the seriousness and number of offenses, stating that a custodial sentence was unavoidable. The judge also noted the increasing ease with which explosives can be purchased online.
Strang had told pupils he planned to buy a pressure cooker for bomb construction and showed them videos of homemade weapons and explosives. The court heard that his interest was "not simply an interest in chemistry."
Investigators discovered a document on Strang's phone titled "manifesto," written between July 23 and August 31 of the previous year, in which he wrote, "I am writing this before I do something big something violent maybe serial killing maybe a rampage."
During a woodwork lesson, Strang reportedly told classmates he idolized serial killers and had color-coded his favorites. He described how to make a pressure cooker bomb, adding shrapnel to increase its lethality, and identified a classroom as an easy target due to its glass windows, having timed his escape route.
Strang shared images and videos of homemade weapons and explosives, as well as incidents like the school massacre in Kerch, Crimea, and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Police searches yielded 120g of gunpowder, ingredients for an additional 1.3kg of thermite and 320g of gunpowder, and a blowpipe.
Strang's mother stated that her son had changed significantly after the family moved to Britain from South Africa when he was 13. She believed he was conducting science experiments when he purchased chemicals from Amazon. Strang told police he made the purchases while his family slept.
Detective Inspector Dave Rowlands of Staffordshire Police commended the "vigilance" of college staff and students in helping to "prevent any potential harm."
Frank Ferguson, chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service Counter-Terrorism Division, commented that Strang "demonstrated a disturbing fixation with violence." He clarified that the case was not prosecuted on the basis of terrorist motivation or ideological intent, but acknowledged the "very serious risk to those around him."
Rudakubana, who was 17 when he committed a triple murder in July 2024, was later sentenced to life imprisonment. Strang, from Stafford, received his sentence at a young offenders' institution.