Teenager, 17, who 'idolised serial killers' and threatened to blow up his college is jailed for almost four years

By ANDY DOLAN AND DUNCAN GARDHAM Published: 17:22, 29 June 2026 | Updated: 17:22, 29 June 2026 A teenager who 'idolised serial killers' has been jailed for three years and 11 months for possessing explosives and making threats to attack his school. Jagger Strang, who was 17 at the time, also boasted to three other pupils that he had plans to blow up his college using a pressure cooker bomb. In a Snapchat discussion with one classmate, he showed him a colour-coded 'bingo card' of mass killers, photos of homemade weapons, videos of himself lighting chemicals in his garden and kitchen, and videos of himself torturing cats. Strang, now 18, also told people at his college that he was carrying knives and that he had a plan to blow up the college. The next day three fellow students reported Strang to the college, which made the decision to close early to safeguard pupils and contact the police.  Strang was arrested later that day. When police searched his home on September 9 last year, officers found gunpowder in a coffee jar and a sweet tin in the garage.  They also found quantities of thermite explosives and an instructional videos from YouTube showing how to make explosives and how to construct a detonator. Detectives discovered that two days before his arrest he had researched Axel Rudakubana, the Southport killer, a number of other serial killers and mass school stabbings, as well as how to make a pressure cooker bomb. On the day of his arrest he had sent a video to a user called 'M' in which he compared himself with various killers, including Rudakubana, and posed in a mask with a bow and arrow and an axe. The judge said Jagger Strang was an 'isolated young man' and had problems at home A blow pipe was amongst items recovered by police from Strang's home Just 20 minutes before his arrest, he messaged another online user: 'Just fine tuning my gunpowder' and, 13 minutes later, he accessed a YouTube video showing how to make gunpowder. Strang pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing an explosive substance, two charges of possessing terrorist bomb-making videos, threatening to set off a bomb at Stafford College and possession of an offensive weapon. Strang also admitted making threats to kill students at the college but the prosecution accepted he had 'no intention' of actually building a bomb. Jailing him for a total of three years and 11 months, the judge, Mr Justice Wall, accepted he was an 'isolated young man with problems at home' but said that 'no sentence other than a custodial sent can be justified because of the seriousness and number of the offences committed.' The judge warned it was 'easier now than ever before' for people to buy explosives on the internet.  He told Strang: 'You persuaded those to whom you spoke that you intended to make good on your threats, you said, for example, that you had identified a particular classroom to blow up because of the number of glass windows it had.'  Strang told fellow pupils that he wanted to 'buy a pressure cooker' to build a bomb, and sent them videos of homemade weapons and explosives, the court heard.  'It was not simply an interest in chemistry,' said Judge Wall.  Gunpowder was found in this coffee jar when police searched Strang's home in Stafford Birmingham Crown Court heard police also discovered a document titled 'manifesto' on the teenager's phone which the teenager had written on July 23 and August 31, nine days before his arrest. In the document Strang said: 'I am writing this before I do something big something violent maybe serial killing maybe a rampage.' Matthew Brook KC, prosecuting, said Strang told fellow pupils that he 'idolised serial killers and had colour-coded his favourites' during a break in a school woodwork lesson at the beginning of the autumn term last year. Strang described the process of making a pressure cooker bomb and adding shrapnel to make it more deadly. He said the classroom the group used was 'the easiest' target because it was all glass and said he had already timed the exit route so that he could get away after setting the timer. That evening on Snapchat, one of the pupils asked him to 'show me weapons then' and was sent a series of images and videos of Strang with a variety of homemade weapons in his bedroom, kitchen and garden. He also shared three videos of himself lighting substances in his kitchen and garden. During a 29-minute Snapchat call with the pupil, Strang made further comments about making a pressure cooker bomb and attacking his school. He sent further images and videos showing a school massacre at a college in Kerch, Crimea, the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and Southport killer Axel Rudakubana. The police searches revealed he had 120g of gunpowder and the ingredients to make another 1.3kg of homemade thermite and 320g of gunpowder, along with a blowpipe. Strang's mother told police that her son had been a 'nice kid, bubbly' during his upbringing in South Africa but had 'completely changed' after the family moved to Britain when he was 13. Strang told police he had bought the chemicals from Amazon and experimented while his family were asleep in the house but his mother told officers she had made the purchases and believed he was conducting science experiments. Detective Inspector Dave Rowlands, from Staffordshire Police paid tribute to the 'vigilance' of college staff and students who helped 'prevent any potential harm'. Frank Ferguson, chief crown prosecutor from the Crown Prosecution Service Counter-Terrorism Division, said: 'Jagger Strang demonstrated a disturbing fixation with violence, supported by the material recovered from his devices and the threats he made to others. 'This case was not prosecuted on the basis of terrorist motivation or ideological intent. However, his actions posed a very serious risk to those around him and required a robust response.' Rudakubana was 17 when he murdered Bebe King, six, Elsie Stancombe, seven, and Alice Aguiar, nine, in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29 2024. He was later jailed for life. Strang, from Stafford, was sentenced to three years and nine months custody in a young offenders' institute. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. 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