Overview
- Hopes, 18, received a two-year community order Thursday at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court with 30 days of rehabilitation and a 12-month rule that lets probation monitor his phone and SIM after spending about three and a half months in custody.
- He pleaded guilty to making threats to kill after telling police he wanted to go into Newtown College and “shoot people.”
- A search of his phone found a nine-page document titled “Theo Hopes Mass Murderer” that the judge said was meant to be sent after a serious crime and his death.
- Investigators also logged videos of him giving Nazi salutes, an English copy of Mein Kampf, and searches on pipe bombs, school attacks, and weapons.
- Police who visited his father’s home on December 8 seized a legally owned air rifle and took him to Brecon station, where a clinician said he spoke in a calm, cold way, and the court later heard he had prior Prevent referrals and no previous convictions.