What kind of person is capable of savagely murdering a 14-year-old schoolboy? Phil Coleman peers into the mind of George Thomson.

IN STUNNED silence, the Jordan Watson murder trial jury studied the arsenal of weapons laid out before them.

For nearly 10 minutes, they stared at the deadly collection from George Thomson’s home – so numerous they covered four large tables in the well of Carlisle Crown Court.

There were scores of knives and daggers, several machetes, at least 16 swords, two crossbows, several guns, and two axes – the cutting edge of one razor sharp.

If anything could give the jury an insight into the mind of Jordan Watson’s killer it was his weaponry.

His explanation for that extraordinary collection was his interest in violence and fantasy films and the Call of Duty and Warhammer video games.

But what made Thomson turn his fantasies of violence into sickening reality?

As he began giving his evidence at Carlisle Crown Court, Thomson – stocky, quietly spoken, reserved almost – told the jury about himself.

How he was a pupil at St Adrian’s School when it merged with North Cumbria Technology College, becoming the Richard Rose Central Academy. “I was bullied because of weight issues,” he said. “Bullied a lot.”

He was okay with maths and computers but no good at English. After school, he said, he worked with his dad in the family building firm and began training as a plumbing and heating engineer.

Guided by his QC, Thomson explained that he got into trouble in 2015, chalking up a conviction for battery.

An earlier court hearing was told that Thomson’s family were repeatedly taunted by the youth who was attacked – by both George Thomson and his father, also called George – in May that year. Both admitted common assault.

It was low level violence – the sort of thing that translated into six or 10 paragraphs in a local paper. Yet just a month later George Thomson junior’s violence escalated to a horrifying level.

Even then, warning bells were beginning faintly to ring in the minds of those who knew him. Gradually, Thomson seemed to be reinventing himself. Gone was the slightly overweight schoolboy targeted by school bullies.

In his own mind the 19-year-old Thomson was becoming a tough guy – a man prepared to fight his corner. Crucially, he fell head over heels in love with the 14-year-old girlfriend of a young pal.

During his trial, evidence emerged of how desperate Thomson was to impress her and his friends.

He told the girl that he had signed a “contract” – something to do with leaving Carlisle and “shooting people”, she later told the jury.

Thomson denied this but admitted that he was prone to “bigging himself up” in front of his friends.

In the weeks leading up to Jordan Watson’s murder on June 15 Thomson appeared to be increasingly in the grip of his obsession with the schoolboy’s girlfriend. He showered her with gifts. But it became increasingly apparent that the girl – already committed to Jordan – did not want to dump him in favour of Thomson.

Hidden in a drawer in Thomson’s room, police found a stash of love letters that he wrote to her but never sent.

Rambling, intense, and at times eloquent almost, they show Thomson was edging ever closer to the time when his fantasy of himself as a “strong man” would become a gruesome reality.

Despite knowing she was still a child, Thomson was obsessed with the idea that he should have a relationship with the girl. She rejected him, but in Thomson’s mind only one person stood in his way: Jordan Watson.

In one letter he wrote: “I would die 100 times for you.

“I would kill anyone for you. I would walk around the world for you. I would defend you till the last breath leaves my body. You are the love of my life and always will be."

In court, Thomson’s QC bluntly asked him: “ Would you have killed for (her)?" Inevitably, Thomson denied that he would.

Yet the reality was that his obsession with the girl continued to fester.

Ultimately, it transformed into a murderous plan to eliminate the one obstacle, as he saw it, to his having the girl of his dreams.

Foolishly, still striving to impress his pals, he revealed what was in his mind in some of his online messages.

He spoke of needing to “get rid” of somebody; said the person “needed to die”; that he needed to be “taken down.”

In one telling exchange, Brahnn Finley’s QC Andrew O’Byrne spelled out what seemed to be driving Thomson towards murder.

He told him: “You were infatuated with [Jordan’s girlfriend – madly in love.” Thomson replied: “Yes.”

“You thought she was the one,” continued Mr O’Byrne. Again, Thomson agreed. But, said the barrister, there was one problem.

Thomson supplied the answer: “She was going out with someone else – Jordan Watson.”

Mr O’Byrne led Thomson to the inevitable conclusion: “So he effectively stood in your way so far as she was concerned.” Again, Thomson accepted the point.

The defendant repeatedly denied that he wanted Jordan Watson dead, but the evidence suggested powerfully that he came up with a plan to achieve exactly that.

First, he invented a story that would lure the schoolboy to the perfect place – a dark and deserted corner of Upperby Cemetery.

He told Jordan that he was needed for a “job” – a secret sale of weapons. The schoolboy told friends the deal would net him £1,000.

The cleverness of that, the court heard, was that as he went to meet Thomson in the cemetery that night Jordan expected to see his friend with fearsome weapons – and so not be panicked.

In Jordan’s mind, it must have seemed hugely exciting: a night of intrigue and danger, sweetened by ready cash

Despite being warned that it sounded dodgy, the opportunity seemed too good.

Only Thomson knows what he had in his mind on the dark night of June 15.

Did he simply want to terrify Jordan? Teach him a tough lesson in who was boss in their part of Carlisle?

Whatever the truth, the medical evidence confirmed that his fatal attack on the vulnerable schoolboy was savage and sustained.

At just 4ft 11, and weighing 7st 6lbs, Jordan stood no chance against his older and stockier Thomson.

Despite this, the schoolboy fought desperately for his life – his hands sustaining what the pathologist said were typical defence wounds.

Unwittingly, the appalling sound of Jordan’s final struggle were heard by people who live near the cemetery.

His screams will haunt those who heard them for the rest of their lives.

Within an hour of the murder, Thomson had faked an abusive Facebook message to Jordan’s girlfriend, dumping her and telling her he had “found someone better”.

Bizarrely, even then, Thomson pursued her, comforting the girl as she became increasingly concerned for Jordan when he failed to go home.

In a series of text messages, sent to Thomson and Jordan’s worried mum in the hours after he disappeared, the girl asked for news of her missing boyfriend.

Responding to a message from the girl in which she said she feared the body found at the cemetery might be Jordan, Thomson told her: “It shouldn’t be [him] because he can look after himself. xxxx.”

In court, Thomson desperately tried to shift suspicion on to a family who had previously fallen out with Jordan. But the jury saw through his lies.

There was evidence of Thomson’s arrogance: a message in which he told a friend he was “too good” to be caught by the police.

Days after the murder, as he sat in the interview room at Durranhill Police HQ in Carlisle, Thomson was confronted with the reality of what he had done.

A detective showed him a photo of Jordan’s body, with the terrible injuries that he had inflicted.

“It’s vile,” he said, shrinking away from the image.

Yet even then he did not have the courage to face up to what he had done. It took the detached judgement of a jury to make that happen.

Despite his boast that he would run rings round the police, he betrayed his guilt in a series of blunders.

In the years to come, as he served his sentence, Thomson will have ample time to reflect on his folly: and to think about how his twin obsessions – with violence and a 14-year-old schoolgirl – turned him into a savage child killer.

Meanwhile, many people will feel shocked that a 14-year-old schoolboy would willingly go to a secret meeting for a “dodgy” weapons deal in a graveyard at night. Why would he do that?

The answer must be that Jordan saw it as an adventurous – daring, mysterious, highly exciting.

Besides, it had been organised by a trusted friend. Tragically, that naive trust of George Thomson cost Jordan Watson his life.