Teenager Obsessed With Southport Killer and Mass Murder Jailed for Bomb Plot Threats

An 18-year-old who developed a disturbing fixation with extreme violence, tortured cats and stockpiled explosive materials while idolising mass murderers including the Southport killer has been sentenced to nearly four years in a young offenders' institution.

Jagger Strang, who was 17 at the time of the offences, was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Monday, June 29, to three years and 11 months in custody, with a further 12 months on licence.

The teenager from Staffordshire pleaded guilty at Leicester Crown Court on May 6 to six counts, including two charges of possessing an explosive substance (gunpowder and thermite), two counts of possession of a terrorist document, making threats to kill and making threats to destroy or damage property.

He also admitted being in possession of an offensive weapon, namely a homemade blowpipe, in a private place.

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The court heard how Strang’s terrifying digital footprint revealed a deep obsession with serial killers and mass casualty events.

Following his arrest, detectives found that just two days prior, he had specifically researched Axel Rudakabana, the teenager jailed for life for the murder of three young girls—Bebe King, Elsie Stancombe and Alice Aguiar—in Southport on July 29, 2024.

Strang had also researched mass school stabbings and actively searched for instructions on how to construct a pressure cooker bomb.

The alarm was first raised in September last year when Strang made threats to three fellow students at Stafford College, claiming he was carrying knives, possessed numerous weapons and had a concrete plan to set off a bomb at the educational facility.

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During a Snapchat conversation with a classmate that same evening, Strang shared a disturbing "bingo card" of mass killers he admired, photos of homemade weapons and homemade videos of himself lighting chemical substances in his garden and kitchen. He also shared horrific videos of himself torturing cats.

The terrified students reported Strang to the college the following day. In response to the severe threat, the college took the immediate decision to end classes early to safeguard all pupils and immediately contacted the police.

Strang was arrested later that day, and on September 9, police raided the home where he was living.

During the search, officers discovered the homemade blowpipe, which had been tested for accuracy, alongside chemical ingredients capable of producing up to 1.3kg of thermite and 320g of gunpowder.

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An examination of his digital devices uncovered a chilling manifesto written by Strang in the weeks before his arrest in 2025.

In the document, the teenager pledged:

"I am writing this before I do something big something violent maybe serial killing maybe a rampage".

The manifesto detailed a sickening fascination with killing hospital patients with a knife and stated it was his "dream" to be famous like notorious mass murderers.

He specifically cited Peyton Gendron, who murdered 10 people in a racist shooting in Buffalo, New York, and Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Further forensic analysis of his devices showed he had accessed YouTube instructional videos detailing how to manufacture black powder and construct detonators, alongside messages describing how he was angry with his life and worshipped serial killers.

He was also found to be a frequent visitor to Goresee, a controversial website hosting graphic videos of real-life mutilation and death, and took an interest in "aura-farming," a social media trend involving dramatic actions to artificially boost social status.

The court was provided with background information regarding Strang's upbringing. His mother told police that he had been a "nice kid, bubbly" while growing up in South Africa but claimed he "completely changed" after the family relocated to the UK when he was 13.

The family dynamic deteriorated further in 2025; his father suffered a severely disabling stroke in February, and his mother moved out of the family home in August following a domestic incident.

His mother attributed his interest in weapons to trauma from a home invasion in South Africa involving four men and admitted to purchasing the bow and arrows seen in his videos, as well as the chemicals, believing they were for science experiments. She warned police:

"The moral of the story is watch what your kids do online".

Strang's grandmother described him as "retreating into his own little gaming world" where he "would not think about anything".

The court heard the teenager stayed awake until 3 AM playing violent video games, including Grand Theft Auto, Bonelab—noted for its "intense violence and realistic gore"—and the survival horror game Dead by Daylight.

This nocturnal lifestyle resulted in poor GCSE results, leading to a rejection from a desired electrical course.

Defending Strang, Charles Miskin KC stated his client had a:

"Personality which tended to be obsessive and whose morbid interest was captured by the wholly unregulated violence to which he exposed himself to in his room".

He argued the "proximal causes" of the threats were likely his mother's departure and his educational failures.

Two charges of intending to endanger life were dropped by the prosecution after Strang denied them on the basis that he had no actual intention of constructing a functional bomb.

Passing sentence, the judge noted there was a real:

"Possibility that your obsessions for explosives and serial killing would align,"

Emphasising the strong need for deterrence:

"It is easier now than ever before for people with interests such as yours to find instructions for making explosives on the internet and then to buy, through the internet, the chemicals necessary for making such explosives,"

The judge stated:

"Gunpowder and thermite are not toys, they are akin to dangerous weapons. Those who act as you did must be clear that they will receive custodial sentences if they do so".

Frank Ferguson, Chief Crown Prosecutor of the Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, clarified that while Strang possessed a disturbing mindset, the case was not prosecuted on the basis of ideological intent or terrorist motivation:

"Jagger Strang demonstrated a disturbing fixation with violence, supported by the material recovered from his devices and the threats he made to others,"

Ferguson said:

"However, his actions posed a very serious risk to those around him and required a robust response".

Detective Inspector Dave Rowlands of Staffordshire Police praised the swift response, stating:

"This was a deeply concerning case involving threats that understandably caused significant alarm to the students that Strang talked to and staff at the college. Thanks to the vigilance of the college's students and staff, and the swift actions of our officers, we were able to intervene quickly and prevent any potential harm".