A British internet troll who went on Facebook and threatened to kill 200 American schoolchildren has been jailed.
Reece Elliott, 24, from South Shields, Tyne and Wear, sparked a security crackdown after he made the threats on an online memorial pages for two American teenagers killed in car accidents.
Schools in Warren County, Tennessee, went into lockdown and 3,000 children missed school the next day because of the threats, because of the Sandy Hook Massacre which saw 20 children and six adults shot in an elementary school just two months earlier.
Using a false name, he wrote on the RIP Caitlin Talley page, dedicated to a popular pupil at Warren County Highwho had died in a car accident in October: "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 also directed vile abuse at the dead girl, including writing he was glad she was dead, suggesting that they go drink driving and threatening rape.
Using the same pseudonym, Elliott then posted the threats about driving into school. He said: "I'm killing 200 people minimum at school. I will be on CNN."
One 15-year-old girl, whose identity cannot be reported due to her age, was told: "You have been chosen tomorrow at school to receive one of my bullets."
Elliot was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court after admitting making threats to kill, and communications offences.
Jailing him for two years and four months, Judge James Goss QC, the Recorder of Newcastle, told him the offences were driven by 'no more than self-indulgent nastiness'.
The father-of-one admitted one count of making a threat to kill and eight of sending grossly offensive messages. He has been held in custody since his arrest in February.
The FBI and Homeland Security managed to trace the user name to an address in the South Shields area. The American authorities contacted police and various enquiries were made in order to identify who made these postings.
Elliott handed himself in and admitted to police he was a 'part-time troll' who was posting the message to see what reaction he could provoke.