A man who told a probation officer of his plans to go on a killing spree at Workington's Uppies and Downies was a lonely attention seeker, a jury has heard.

Shane Fletcher, 21, allegedly wanted to achieve notoriety by emulating Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold who murdered 12 students and one teacher at their school in Colorado.

Fletcher, from Workington, spoke about targeting the town's traditional Uppies and Downies festival where thousands gather every Easter for a series of medieval football matches played in the street.

On Wednesday, Fletcher's barrister Simon Csoka QC reminded jurors at Manchester Crown Court that the probation officer was duty-bound to pass such comments on to the police.

In his closing speech he said: "You can't intend to do something that you know is going to be stopped.

"Why on earth would you be making plans to do something that is inevitably going to be stopped? It doesn't make the slightest bit of sense.

"When you heard of the charges at the start of this case it must have been a surprise to you that what you were actually hearing about was not a terrorist sat in the dock but somebody who is incredibly immature."

Mr Csoka said the defendant was already aware that the same probation officer had previously passed on concerns to the authorities, including police, when the self-professed white supremacist remarked he was a risk to ethnic minorities.

He suggested Fletcher had only started mentioning the Uppies and Downies event from January 2018, following discussions to reduce his weekly meetings to fortnightly sessions and that the defendant was a lonely attention seeker.

Fletcher had also messaged his friend, Kyle Dixon, about the festival and how easy it would be to get a van and plough people down, the court has heard.

The Crown say the defendant was encouraging Mr Dixon to join him in committing a massacre in April 2018 but Mr Csoka said in reality it was just two young men "upping the ante" in "stupid and idiotic" conversations on Facebook Messenger.

Mr Csoka told the jury: "Nobody, on the face of these messages, seems to be taking it seriously or deciding who is going to be the target.

"It is a world away from these fanciful theories about the Columbine massacre and getting back at people who bullied them at school.

"How on earth are they going to do that at the Uppies and Downies festival where there are thousands of people? How are they going to pick out these people?

"There is nothing, that the police have found that show this was actually going to happen, that it actually was intended.

That's the real problem with this case as you don't get that far. Disturbing, yes. Repellent, yes. But it's a long long way from being sure there was true intent there."

Fletcher was arrested at his family home in Wastwater Avenue on March 10, just days after the probation officer passed on his concerns to the authorities.

Among items seized was his mobile phone, which contained an image of the Columbine killers lying dead on the ground, and a diary in which the Crown say he outlined his intention to commit a massacre and also contained instructions on how to make a pipe bomb and improvised napalm.

Fletcher is also accused of sending the pipe bomb instructions online to Mr Dixon.

Mr Csoka told the jury that neither set of instructions were likely to be of use to a terrorist - napalm was not a good weapon for terrorists, he said, while the methods outlined on how to make a pipe bomb were "completely obvious".

Fletcher, who chose not to give evidence, denies one count of soliciting Mr Dixon to murder persons unknown and two counts of collecting or making a record of information likely to be useful for terrorism purposes.

The jury has retired to consider its verdicts.