A man from South Shields who threatened through Facebook to kill 200 people in the US has been jailed for 28 months.
Reece Elliot posted the messages on an online memorial page for a girl from Tennessee who had been killed in a car crash.Using a false profile, Elliot, 24, wrote: "My father has three guns. I'm planning on killing him first and putting him in a dumpster. Then I'm taking the motor and I'm going in fast.
"I'm gonna kill hopefully at least 200 before I kill myself. So you want to tell the deputy, I'm on my way.''
The court heard the father-of-one had also directed abusive messages at the deceased girl, who was a popular pupil at Warren County High school.
"I'm glad the fat bitch is dead. Let's drink to drink driving. No-one gives a sh*t that she's dead, get over it."
One 15-year-old girl, whose identity cannot be reported due to her age, was told: "You have been chosen tomorrow at school to receive one of my bullets."
With heightened sensitivities following the Newtown shooting in which 20 children were killed, schools in Warren County went into lockdown and 3,000 pupils missed school the next day.
Inquiries made by the FBI and Homeland Security traced the username to Reece's address in Newcastle.
Judge James Goss QC, the Recorder of Newcastle, told Reece the offences were driven by "no more than self-indulgent nastiness".
The judge took into account Elliott's early guilty plea and genuine remorse in passing a sentence of 28 months.