A man who threatened to massacre pupils at schools for girls in response to the treatment of “transwomen” has been sentenced to 28 months in custody. Darren Rigby, 21, specifically targeted all-girls schools when he sent a series of messages threatening to “shoot and stab all of your girls,” and referred to the students using the slur “TERFs,” a derogatory acronym which stands for “trans exclusionary radical feminist.”
Rigby was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on June 1 after he admitted to making threats to three girls’ schools across Merseyside over the space of a week in January. In each case, Rigby contacted school officials via email and threatened to murder students in retaliation for the plight of trans-identified men, commonly referred to as “trans women.”
As reported by The Southport Lead, the court heard that Rigby described the “oppression” of “trans women,” but had had no prior interaction with anyone affiliated with the schools he targeted. The only link connecting the schools was the fact that they were exclusively for females. Reporter Jamie Lopez was present for Rigby’s hearings and reported the contents of the hoax letters he sent to the schools as they were read out by Prosecutor Iain Criddle.
In the first incident, which occurred on January 19, Rigby claimed he was already hiding inside the Holly Lodge Girls’ College in West Derby and waiting to attack. The only way to prevent students from being slaughtered, Rigby said, would be for the women and girls to make a public apology to “trans women.” Police were called and the school was forced to shut down for the day.
In a statement, head teacher Andrew Keen said, “”The staff had to react quickly to a lockdown without knowing the reason why. They had to talk with the students in their care to keep them safe all while wondering what was happening and what would happen next. Students see schools as a safe place to come to be themselves and be safe. For them to be told we were locked for their safety in school was a real shock… Several parents were reluctant to send their daughters into school because of their anxiety.”
On January 23, Rigby contacted Greenbank High School in Southport. The court heard that an email was sent at 12:53pm which warned that he would massacre the girls in attendance in order to make a point about “misgendering trans women like me.”
It continued: “I am on my way to the school with a revolver and a machete and I’m going to shoot and stab all of your girls. You TERFs are going to learn to stop mocking, deadnaming and misgendering transwomen like me. If anyone attempts to stop me, they will be shot and I will release a blood agent into the school which will poison you.”
“TERF” is an acronym which stands for “trans exclusionary radical feminist.” TERF is considered by many to be a derogatory term, as it is often used to justify violence against women who oppose gender ideology.
Headteacher Davina Aspinall said she felt “physically sick” after reading the email. “Children were crying, shaking, asking if they were going to be harmed, asking if the threat was real,” Aspinall said. “At this point we had little information that we could provide the children.”
Three days later, January 26, Rigby sent threats to The Belvedere Academy in Liverpool. At 8:30am, headteacher Julie Taylor was informed that a threatening message had been sent during the night.
The email read: “I have managed to gain access to the school and I’m now hiding somewhere in the school with a crossbow and a sword. When your girls come into school I will be jumping out. I’m going to kill every girl and woman staff member I come across.” The academy was placed in lockdown for the day.
Headteacher Taylor said: “There have been numerous conversations between pupils around the lockdown. The more vulnerable pupils and pupils with special educational needs have found it difficult to regulate and have had to relearn that school is a safe place. For a number of them, this has taken significant time.
“25% of our pupils have special needs. There are 47 pupils that require specialist support and 75 pupils who have neurodiverse diagnoses. Experiencing lockdown for these children was very upsetting.”
While the case did receive some coverage in the United Kingdom, major mainstream outlets have come under fire for explicitly failing to include any details on Rigby’s motives in their articles.
In a June 1 article on Rigby’s sentencing, the BBC did not mention why Rigby had targeted the schools even though the information was widely available.
Liverpool Echo similarly failed to mention Rigby’s motives, as did the Irish Mirror.
According to the Southport Lead, Rigby had disclosed that he had been struggling with his gender identity prior to making the threats. However, he was referred to with masculine pronouns in court.
His attorney, Rebecca Smith, said “It’s clear from the defendant’s own admissions, the difficulties of internal struggles he felt led to the impulsive responses in sending these messages … [but] his issues with injustice, turmoil and confrontation with himself were heightened by cannabis use and heavy alcohol consumption.”
Smith continued: “It is not pleasant for any person to hear whispers from others calling them names, putting them in boxes and stereotyping them. That is something Mr. Rigby needs to come to terms with and understand how to deal with.”
Rigby was ultimately sentenced to 28 months in prison.
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