A TEENAGER has been jailed over bogus bomb threats send to schools in Worcestershire and other nationwide.

George Duke-Cohan twice targeted schools in the UK and US with hoax messages - before phoning-in a fake report of a hijacked aircraft while under investigation.

The 19-year-old, of Mutchetts Close, Watford, first created panic in March 2018 when he emailed thousands of schools in the UK warning about an explosive.

More than 400 schools were evacuated, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Worcester News reported on how Red Hill Primary School in Worcester sent children home early after receiving the email in which threats were made suggesting pupils would be harmed when they left school.

The email sent to schools read: “You can ignore this email and risk the lives of the students you say you care for or you can listen to what we are telling you. The only way out is to go out with a bang. A car will drive into as many students as possible as they try to leave. If you try and evacuate then the driver will get out and shoot any student leaving.”

St Richard's CE First School, Blackminster Middle School and Pebworth First School in Stratford-upon-Avon, near Evesham, are among those in the county who are understood to have received the email.

He was jailed for three years by Judge Richard Foster at Luton Crown Court on Friday. Jailing him, the judge said: "You were playing a game for your own perverted sense of fun in full knowledge of the consequences. The scale of what you did was enormous. Schools were evacuated and, where they were not, those in charge had to take agonising decisions.

"The passengers and crew on that flight on 9th August must have been terrified when their plane was taken to a quarantined area, and, apart from the financial cost, the onward travelling plans and connecting flights would have been in disarray."

The judge also highlighted that Duke-Cohan had "bragged" about his offending and had said how "funny" it was to make hoax calls. He was sentenced to one year in jail for the school emails and two years for the airport security scare in which the aircraft - with 295 passengers on board - had to be quarantined at San Francisco airport.