AN ESSAY mirroring in `unnerving' detail a massacre alleged to have been plotted by its schoolboy author has been read to a jury.

Ross McKnight, 16, and Matthew Swift, 18, are accused of planning a Columbine-style massacre at Audenshaw High School and Crown Point North shopping centre, in Denton.

They are said to have planned the atrocity for April 20 this year - the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School masssacre, in America, when 12 pupils and a teacher were shot dead by students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

The defendants, who live on the same road in Denton, deny charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions between November 1, 2007 and March 15, 2009.

Manchester Crown Court heard extracts from a school essay, entitled Equations of the Mind, written by McKnight at the same time he and Swift are said to have hatched the alleged plot, which they dubbed Project Rainbow.

'Hatched plot '

The essay said: "In the Audenshaw massacre there were hundreds injured and ten people killed by the one person (who) had some sort of grudge against the school or had some sort of grudge against the people who went to the school."

Giving evidence, McKnight's English teacher Joannah Sallabank, who graded the assignment `C' and praised the `chatty tone and style', said she raised concerns with her pupil but added: "Ross reassured me there was nothing the matter at home and it was just a piece of creative writing."

Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, asked: "Was this a topic that you had come across before?" She replied: "No."

Another teacher discovered a project about Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in 1995, on McKnight's password-protected school computer system.

Earlier, schoolfriends told the court that Swift - who left school in July 2008 to work in Ikea - had asked them to buy bomb ingredients for him.

Confided

One said he had asked him to buy a liquid over the internet. Another said he had asked her to buy a chemical from the chemist because he did not want to be seen buying it himself.

She said: "He wanted it to make a small explosive from. He assured me it was nothing harmful, it just shot out white powder."

The court also heard that he told pals he learned to make bombs on websites. One witness said: "He seemed to think it was quite an exciting prospect."

Another said Swift had confided in her at a party. She told the court: "He just said that he really couldn't wait to leave then he said he was going to come in and just shoot everybody.

"I didn't know what to say so I said `What, even me?' and he said: `Yes, mates get it first'."

The plot was uncovered, the prosecution say, when a friend of McKnight alerted police after he revealed details to her during a drunken conversation.

The court was told that police found journals in the boys' bedrooms containing rants against society and charting the progress of Project Rainbow.

They also recovered mobile phone videos, it was alleged, of them testing explosives and floorplans of the shopping centre - distributed as part of a geography field trip to the complex - and of the school, headed `ground zero' and indicating areas, including the dining room and science block, where explosives could be planted.

A manual, called `The Anarchist Cookbook' containing instructions on bomb and weapon making, a gas mask and BB gun were also found in Swift's room.

Proceeding

Teens in court over school bomb plot