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7 Dec, 2018 16:02

‘Perverted sense of fun’: UK teen who sent bomb threats to schools & airports jailed for 3 years

‘Perverted sense of fun’: UK teen who sent bomb threats to schools & airports jailed for 3 years

A British teen has been jailed for 3 years after making hundreds of fake bomb threats to UK and US schools and sparking an airport security scare stateside after a bogus tip-off hijackers had taken over a United Airlines flight.

George Duke-Cohan, 19, from Watford, Hertfordshire, sent emails to more than 400 UK schools warning about an explosive, according to the National Crime Agency. It triggered mass evacuations of schools from March earlier this year.

Sentencing Duke-Cohan at Luton Crown Court, Judge Richard Foster said: “You knew exactly what you were doing and why you were doing it, and you knew full well the havoc that would follow.

“You were playing a cat-and-mouse game with the authorities. You were playing a game for your own perverted sense of fun in full knowledge of the consequences.”

Also on rt.com Two UK teenagers arrested on suspicion of plotting terror attacks

After being arrested, the teenager still managed to send another collection of emails to schools in the US and UK in April while under investigation, claiming a pipe bomb had been planted on their premises.

Duke-Cohan was arrested for a second time and released on pre-charge bail with conditions that he did not have access to electronic devices. Such conditions did not deter the teenager, as he was then linked to a third hoax, regarding a fake tip-off that hijackers had taken over a United Airlines flight between the UK and San Francisco in the US in August.

Detectives discovered that Duke-Cohan had made phone calls to San Francisco Airport and their police force while on pre-charge bail for the two prior offenses.

Commenting specifically on the teenager’s third hoax, Judge Richard Foster said: “The passengers and crew on that flight on August 9 must have been terrified when their plane was taken to a quarantined area, and, apart from the financial cost, the onward travelling plans and connecting flights would have been in disarray.”

Duke-Cohan was arrested for a third time at his home in Watford on August 31 this year.

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