Teen who called in bomb hoaxes to his student halls in Sheffield for ‘attention’ is jailed

19-year-old James Klaassen-White remained silent as he was taken down to begin a 16-month prison sentence, during a hearing held at Sheffield Crown Court this morning.

The Sheffield Hallam University student admitted sending in two bomb hoaxes to his accommodation at the Central Quay building in Alma Street, Sheffield city centre in November last year at an earlier hearing.

As he jailed him, Judge David Dixon told Klaassen-White: “Causing 700 students to fear and panic they were about to be blown up is simply so serious that nothing other than custody can follow.”

He added: “You have caused some, if not considerable, fear to police operatives, police staff and security personnel who were just doing their job.”

Prosecutor, Richard Sheldon, told the court how Klaassen-White, a first-year computing student, made the first bomb hoax to South Yorkshire Police on November 27.

“He said he received threats via email indicating that someone was watching him and that there was a bomb in the building that he had until 1am to find. Officers attended, and he said there was no trace on the email and it had been sent from a specialist user,” said Mr Sheldon.

Police doubted Klaassen-White’s account and had concerns for his ‘mental health,’ the court heard.

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Klaassen-White repeated the calls to police on the following day, claiming to have received further threats which stated that a bomb was going to go off at 1am.

After not receiving a visit from police, Klaassen-White, of Queensway, Scunthorpe went to the building’s security guards and told them there was a bomb in the building at around 12.50am that night.

“He said he had been told to set off the fire alarm. They refused to do it, so the defendant set it off himself,” said Mr Sheldon.

University staff and around 700 students living in the building were evacuated.