Trial starts for teen accused of swatting

The Barrhaven, Ont., teen accused of swatting crimes across North America launched his online terror campaign after a 2013 argument with a fellow student in computer class, and escalated, a prosecutor said, from pranks to calling in fake 911 calls to prompt SWAT teams to raid homes and schools from Calgary to California.

Near the end of the alleged online harassment campaign, the 17-year-old was taunting police on Twitter, saying, “I have guns pointed at your heads. Catch me if you can.”

This was tweeted to police in Laval, Que., after a bomb threat had been called in at a high school in that community, the prosecutor told court on Tuesday.

According to the prosecution’s case, the accused teen used a Twitter account to advertise his swatter-for-hire services.

The accused was arrested in 2014 and faces more than 30 charges, ranging from public mischief and death threats to false information with intent to cause alarm.

On the first day of the boy’s trial in an Ottawa courtroom, assistant Crown attorney Kerry McVey told court she was going to call young witnesses, some of whom will be travelling with their parents.

The judge-alone trial heard that one Quebec boy who used the accused’s swatter-for-hire services has already pleaded guilty for enlisting him to call in a bomb threat to his Laval high school.

In one case that terrorized a California family, the teen is accused of at first ordering thousands of dollars worth of pizzas to a target’s home. The boy then started making swatting calls to the family home and later the target’s high school, court heard.

Swatting is a fake 911 call that prompts a police department’s SWAT team to be deployed to a target’s address.

In one 911 call, the boy allegedly called police in California and posed as a target’s son, reporting that his mother was bleeding to death, causing the local SWAT team to descend on the unsuspecting family, court heard. In another call, police were told there were hostages inside the target address.

The accused teen met one of his alleged victims through Minecraft. The court heard that the alleged victim began playing the online video game at the age of eight.

The accused, since removed from his Barrhaven class, is now home-schooled, court heard.

The boy repeatedly abused his online powers, the court heard. The boy was able to boot targets off-line for set

The FBI traced his IP address to his Barrhaven

home T

periods of time through denial -of-service attacks and send spoof emails posing as his targets. Some of his targets were wrongly arrested because of the swatting, court heard.

In 2014, the boy — whose identity is shielded by law — was arrested by Ottawa police after the FBI traced his IP address to his Barrhaven home and forwarded the information, court heard.

Presiding Ontario Court Justice Mitch Hoffman has told the court that he’s never heard of swatting, nor has he used Twitter.

The trial resumes Wednesday.