A SOUTH Tyneside man has been remanded in custody accused of making an internet threat to kill 200 American schoolchildren.
Reece Elliott, 24, from Shrewsbury Terrace in the Deans area of South Shields, was arrested on Friday after a posting was made on a Facebook memorial page for a girl killed in a Tennessee road accident.
The person who posted the message said they were going to kill 200 people before killing themselves, and sparked a huge security alert in the Warren County area of Tennessee.
About 3,000 pupils stayed off school the next day.
Elliott, an unemployed former pupil at Mortimer Comprehensive School, South Shields, appeared before South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court on Saturday morning, charged with making threats to kill and making a malicious communication.
No pleas were entered and he was remanded in custody, to return to the court on Wednesday.
A spokesman for Northumbria Police said: “At 2.12pm on Friday, February 8, police received notification that a man had posted threatening information on Facebook.
“The message is believed to have been posted on Wednesday.”
See Monday’s Gazette.