MANCHESTER, England, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- An English jury deliberated for 45 minutes Wednesday before acquitting two teenagers of conspiring to duplicate the Columbine massacre at their school.
Matthew Swift, 18, and Ross McKnight, 16, could have received life sentences if convicted of the most serious charges, conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to set off bombs at Audenshaw High School in Manchester.
After the verdict, McKnight's lawyer, Roderick Carus, described the prosecution as a waste of time and money. Carus is a queen's counsel, which allows him to function as a prosecutor as well as a defense lawyer.
"This was an unnecessary, heavy-handed prosecution against two young lads who could have been dealt with in a more sensitive way," he said. "That was perhaps the quickest acquittal of this apparent gravity I have ever had the pleasure to experience."
Prosecutors presented plentiful evidence the two teens admired Dylan Harris and Eric Klebold, who killed 13 people at their Colorado high school before taking their own lives. But they could not show the pair had explosives or weapons.
On the witness stand, Swift called his writing "naive and pathetic ways to channel my teenage angst."
"I was 16 with a vivid imagination," he said.
