Terrifying moment Nicholas Prosper pretends piece of wood is a gun before fatally harming three family members

Nicholas Prosper was captured in a chilling moment as he menacingly wielded a piece of wood, pretending it was a gun, just before brutally ending the lives of three of his family members.

At only 19 years old, Prosper harbored dreams of becoming notorious as the world’s most significant mass murderer while tragically taking the lives of his mother, 48-year-old Juliana Falcon, as well as his siblings Kyle Prosper, 16, and Giselle Prosper, 13, by shooting them in the head at his residence in Luton.

After carrying out this horrific act, he proceeded towards his former elementary school armed with a loaded shotgun, a kitchen knife, and a bag full of ammunition, undoubtedly intending to perpetrate further violent and deadly actions.

He intended to shoot at least 30 children of the youngest pupils and teachers at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School as the school day started at 9am.

But Prosper was stopped by police by chance as he was on his way to carry out the school massacre.

Now horrifying footage has revealed how Prosper readied himself for his sick plan, by posing with a wooden plank and pretending it was a gun, in a chilling foreshadowing of the horror that was to come. 

On September 13 last year police found his mother Juliana Falcon dead in the hallway having suffered a single shot to the top of her head as she attempted to fight off her son.

The body of his brother Kyle was found nearby, he had been shot in the chest and head after being stabbed over 100 times.

Prosper also shot his sister Giselle in the eye as she hiding under the dining room table in the living room.

Today he showed no emotion in the dock as the court heard that he craved notoriety and wanted to ‘kill all’.

Prosecutor Timothy Cray KC said Prosper ‘desired to be famous or infamous as a mass killer’ and intended carrying out the biggest school shooting that the world had ever seen.

He told Luton Crown Court said: ‘What drove him on most was the desire to be famous or infamous as a mass killer. This was killing for the sake of killing.’

He continued: ‘The defendant planned to kill his family.

‘The killing of his family was to be first step in an even more shocking mass killing.

‘That same Friday morning, he had planned to kill at least 30 of the youngest pupils and two of their teachers at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Luton.

‘This is the school he attended as a child. It is about three-quarters of a mile from his home.

‘He had been preparing these killings for months. His planning was cold, deliberate and without sympathy or emotion towards the actual victims or potential victims.’

He added: ‘In summary, it comes to this. The defendant’s main wish was to achieve lasting notoriety as a mass killer.

‘Specifically, he wanted to imitate and even surpass other mass killers around the world . He had conducted in depth internet research on shootings in the United States of America, Norway, Australia and New Zealand.

‘He understood his plans, if realised, would bring about the greatest number of deaths in a school or other mass shooting in the United Kingdom and possibly even in the United States of America. He wrote a note saying that this would be, ‘One of the biggest events ever’. The note contained a diagram of the early years’ classroom at St Joseph’s and an arrow pointing to a second classroom .

‘Beside the first classroom he had written, ‘Kill all’.

‘His wish to attain this type of infamy was reflected amongst other things, in the day he chose for the killings (Friday 13th), the distinctive outfit that he planned to wear and the order and selection of his targets.’

In an echo of the Southport attack months earlier, the loner was consumed by a lust for extreme violence and harming children and was intent on continuing his rampage.

Prosper’s bloodthirsty plans were later revealed in February, after Prosper decided to change his plea to guilty at the last minute. 

During the hearing, the teen admitted three counts of murder, as well as to purchasing a shotgun without a certificate, possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life and possession of a kitchen knife in a public place.

The court heard Prosper dreamed of wreaking havoc on a scale larger than Sandy Hook, that claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults in December 2012. 

Chilling footage, played out in court today, prosper menacingly posing with a plank of wood as though it is a firearm while playing around in his kitchen. 

At 5.30am on the day of the triple murder, neighbours of Prosper’s family home in Leabank Court, Luton were awoken by the sounds of a disturbance followed by gunshots.

When officers arrived, they discovered Juliana and two of her four children dead inside the flat. 

Describing the grisly scene, Prosecutor Mr Cray said: ‘They forced entry to number 82 and saw the lifeless bodies of the three victims.

‘Juliana Falcon was found in the hallway. Kyle Prosper was also found in the hallway.

‘Giselle Prosper was found underneath a dining table in the living room, as if she had been trying to hide there.’

Mr Cray said Prosper had spent a year planning his shotgun rampage which he hoped would make him notorious.

‘His stated purpose was to achieve national and international notoriety as one of the largest single incident murderers in criminal history,’ he said.

But his plan to carry out a school shooting that day were thwarted by ‘chance and circumstance alone’ after local police officers spotted Prosper lurking in the street at 7.50am on September 13 last year less than a mile from the school, just hours after he killed his family.

The court heard that Prosper managed to obtain a shotgun the day before on September 12 by creating ‘a high-quality forgery of a shotgun certificate or licence’ which he used to fool a private gun seller, claiming he just wanted it to go clay pigeon shooting.

He had downloaded a blank firearm certificate and made multiple downloads of real firearms certificates in order to make a fake copy.

Police later discovered that Prosper had been ‘thinking about mass killing for over a year’, spending his time researching ‘notorious murderers and rapists’ and ‘pictures of numerous school mass shooters and research as to their manifestos or beliefs’ including looking at the Manchester Arena bombing.

Mr Cray said he had spent months researching local schools as potential targets and he became preoccupied with ‘images and audios that showed deep alienation from normal life and interest in the darkest sides of humanity, including people being killed or seriously injured and violent video games.’

When the teen killer was arrested, he was wearing a yellow and black tracksuit reminiscent of Uma Thurman’s hit movie Kill Bill.

He had stashed his shotgun and ammunition in some bushes about 200m away from where he was found in Bramingham Road. 

During the investigation into the triple killings, police uncovered Prosper’s sickening obsession with death, with the evil teen having spent his time trawling the internet for chilling slaughter videos. 

His disturbed ramblings online were so depraved that he was kicked off a gore website – where millions of users share and comment on videos of people being killed – because of his warped stance on child abuse. 

Prosper’s content was uploaded under a pseudonym and featured his distinctive accent.

His videos have been deleted from YouTube in the wake of his appalling crimes, although the Mail has been able to view them.

They include a clip recorded hours before the massacre, believed to be filmed in his family’s flat in Luton.

Prosper said: ‘On June 30, my sister decided to make the incorrect choices on episode one of season one of The Walking Dead games, and for that her face will be mutilated further than necessary.’

Prosper said he was ‘chosen’ to protect a fictional character called Clementine in the zombie video game, in a sign he struggled to differentiate between the real world and make-believe.

The teenager spent so much time on the internet in his bedroom that neighbours had no idea he even existed – despite them being on friendly terms with his mother and siblings.

One woman told the Mail: ‘I’ve lived here for 15 years and I never saw him once. Juliana and the other kids I saw, usually by the lifts.

‘She would often say hello and chat, she was so nice. I saw all the other siblings but never Nicholas – ever. One lady who lives on their floor said she never knew he even existed.’

Prosper peppered online forums with his repulsive ideas, many relating to children and including the sexual abuse of dead bodies. 

His rants were so revolting he was banned from a gore website for repeatedly ‘sexualising minors’.

One moderator told the Mail: ‘There were multiple comments by him either in support of or arguing for child-adult sexual interactions that made it clear this was not in jest or a careless attempt to play devil’s advocate.

‘We do not know what sort of person Mr Prosper was, other than someone unwilling or incapable of following our site’s rules and therefore someone we would not allow on our platform.’

In another video, Prosper sarcastically suggested that child sexual abuse was blamed for ‘virtually every mental disorder and issue’.

Apologising for his ‘slurred’ speech, the teenager said: ‘Who knows, maybe in a few years we’ll see Aids, rectal cancer, increased chance of stubbing your toe, every single problem you face in life is because you touched a winky [penis] when you were six.’

Meanwhile the revelation he was planning a school shooting sent shockwaves through the community as police revealed for the first time that Prosper’s intended target was St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School which he and his siblings had attended.

Headteacher at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School Maureen Murphy said after Prosper’s guilty plea that staff were ‘very shocked’ to learn of the plot, but that there was no ongoing threat to the school.

Detective Chief Inspector Sam Khanna, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said: ‘In all my years working on murder investigations, I have never known a case quite like this.

‘Not only were three innocent lives taken in such brutal circumstances, but we then learnt of Prosper’s plans to carry out a shooting at a school, something which left our whole investigation team in shock and disbelief.

‘We cannot ever begin to comprehend why someone would plan to kill innocent children and are so grateful to those arresting officers who helped prevent this from taking place.’

Councillor Hazel Simmons, leader of Luton Council, said: ‘The revelation that the perpetrator had plans to cause further harm in one of our schools is extremely shocking, distressing and upsetting; and we don’t underestimate the emotional difficulty this news will have on children, staff, parents and carers across our school community.

‘Our schools have robust systems in place to keep children safe and security is constantly reviewed and monitored.’

Paying tribute, the victims’ family said: ‘Julie was a strong, loving mother to her four beautiful children, who were her absolute world.’

‘In her spare time, she was a keen athlete and enjoyed raising money for charity — she was always putting others first.

‘Kyle was a kind and funny young man who loved football and boxing.

‘He was creative and thriving on TikTok, a big talent with massive potential. Kyle’s friends were his everything. 

‘Giselle was a beautiful soul and caring young girl; she liked to laugh lots and loved her family and big brothers.’