Seven time nominated BEST BRITISH TRUE-CRIME PODCAST at the True Crime Awards, Independent Podcast Award and The British Podcast Awards, and voted 4th Best True-Crime Podcast by This Week, iTunes Top 25 Podcast, Podcast Magazine's Hot 50, The Telegraph's Top 5, Crime & Investigation Top 20 True-Crime Podcasts, also seen on BBC Radio, Sky News, The Guardian and TalkRadio's Podcast of the Week.
EPISODE THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIFTY:
On Wednesday 8th of January 1988, at 3:25pm, expelled pupil 16-year-old Darren Fowler entered the Ferrers School in the town of Higham Ferrers with two knives, 25 cartridges and a shotgun. He had written a suicide note, and planned to get revenge on those who had wronged him. By 3:37pm, it was over. But unlike the Dunblane massacre, it is largely forgotten, and why, like the Dormers Wells school shooting did it not lead for stricter gun control? This was the UK’s penultimate school shooting.
MUSIC:
UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to Murder Mile: Unleashed. (Engine) And I’m away. Goodbye London. Hello Britain. And as I cruise the UK’s canal network in my little boat, I shall bring you true crime cases from the cities, towns and villages I visit. This week, I’m in Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire exploring a crime which, due to strict laws, is rare in this country. My name is Michael, I am your tour guide, and this is Murder Mile. Episode 355: The UK’s Penultimate School Shooting. School shootings are synonymous with countries where constitutions are fawned over like the word of God. In America, which averages 40 to 60 school shootings annually, this kind of crime against innocent children is so common, they’ve had to implement a school shooting database. In 2021, there were 257 school shootings. In 2023, 308. 2024, 352. 336 in 2025, and at time of recording, 235 in 2026. This century in the United Kingdom, we’ve had none. School shootings are incredibly rare. Why? Because when the innocent die at the hands gun-toting idiots, we learn from our mistakes and we implement laws to make the country safer for everyone, even if it upsets some so-called hunters. The case you’re about to hear was the penultimate school shooting in the United Kingdom, but it isn’t retold to glorify its perpetrator or glamourise the violence, but to re-iterate that the way to make our schools safer isn’t through the use of bag-checks, metal detectors or armed security (which effectively turns it into a prison), but a focus education, mental health, bullying, and how this school remained professional and did everything right to protect their staff and students, which they continue today. Wednesday the 8th of January 1988. As was typical of a post-British Christmas, that week it rained as this was about to be one of the wettest January’s on record. Comic Relief had been launched, Margaret Thatcher was then Britain’s longest serving Prime Minister, and at the top of the charts were the Pet Shop Boys with ‘Always on my Mind’. Monday was a ‘teacher training day’, so Wednesday was the second day of the school term. By 3pm – across Higham Ferrers, a small historic town, and neighbouring Rushden, a larger industrial town in East Northamptonshire, with then a combined population of 27,500 - the pavements were filling with prams and the streets with cars as parents prepared to pick up their kids after a dull and ordinary day. Just shy of 3pm, 16-year-old Darren Fowler left his parent’s home on Westfields Street in Higham Ferrers. Taking 10 minutes, his walk up Westfields Avenue, High Street and right into Queensway towards his local school was a route he had made hundreds of times, only three months ago, he was expelled. As he approached the end of this residential street, and entered the open gates of The Ferrers School, a modern comprehensive opened just eight years earlier, no-one noticed him but then they never did. Slightly built and spotty with neck-length brown hair covering his left eye, Fowler was a loner, isolated, a boy who struggled to make friends, and being dressed in black trousers, a black jumper, a crumpled checked shirt, an uneven tie and a donkey jacket with an imitation wolf’s tail, his clothes reflected this. At 3:28pm, with lessons ending, some of the 760 pupils were already exiting the classrooms and milling about before heading home, so being just another student, no-one really noticed Fowler as he entered the administration block, or spotted what he was carrying; two combat knives, one tied to his leg with a six inch blade and a one a nine-inch blade strapped to his hip; a length of nylon rope, twine and matches, an ammunition belt with 25 cartridges, and across his back, a single barrel 12 bore shotgun. Darren Fowler was here to kill, he wouldn’t stop until every shot was spent, and having left a suicide note, the last life he would take would be his own, just like his hero – Michael Ryan – only now Fowler had a captive audience of those who had expelled him, bullied him, or had stolen the girl that he loved. At 3:29pm, the first shot rang out… followed by eight minutes of terror. So, why is the Ferrers School shooting barely known in the UK, and even in Higham Ferrers itself? The same was said of the UK’s antepenultimate school shooting at Dormer’s Wells High in Southall, West London, occurring two months before The Ferrers School, and again is almost entirely forgotten. Some don’t regard it as a school shooting, as it happened late in the evening when the pupils were at home and the sports hall was being used for a religious event. On Wednesday 11th of November 1987, controversial guru Mahraz Darshan Das was preaching when two Sikh extremists - Rajinder Singh Batth & Mangit Singh Sunder – opened fire with a sawn-off shotgun, a 22 handgun and a 38 Smith & Wesson. The attack lasted 16 seconds. Mahraz Darshan Das was killed instantly, Joga Singh a Psalm writer and Satwant Panesar an engineer were killed in the crossfire, and another was injured but survived. The shooters were disarmed, arrested and convicted of murder and manslaughter, and got life sentences. As the third from last UK school shooting, Dormer’s Wells is largely forgotten as the dead were adults, some argue because they were Asian, and it was a politically and religiously motivated assassination. It barely made the newspapers, and as emotion drives change, it brought about no new gun laws. Gun laws in the UK have evolved with changes in society, and as a reaction to high-profile shootings. Before 1900, most British citizens could carry a gun. In 1903, the Government restricted which guns a teenager or child (yes, a child) could own. After World War One, seeing a spike in gun-crime, the 1920 Firearms Act introduced the first modern licensing system which required certificates for rifles, pistols and ammunition, shifting gun ownership from being an unrestricted activity to a licensed privilege. In 1936, a ‘safe storage’ policy was introduced to stop guns falling into the wrong hands, and all short-barrelled shotguns and fully automatic weapons were outlawed, as these were not hunting weapons, but weapons of murder. In 1946, the police deemed ‘self-defence’ no longer a good enough reason to own a gun. In 1953, carrying a firearm outside permitted areas was made illegal. And after the murder of 3 policeman in Shepherd’s Bush, the 1968 Firearms Act required all shotguns to have certificates. In 1988, after lone gunman Michael Ryan went on a killing spree and murdered 16 people in the town of Hungerford, the 1988 Firearms (Amendment) Act saw the banning of semi-automatic, pump-action rifles and explosive ammunition, and increased how they are storage and its certification procedures. His guns were legally owned, but by implementing even stricter laws, our country became safer… …but the legislation we needed came too late for the last school shooting in the United Kingdom, a crime so shocking and callous that it changed our gun laws forever. It was of course, Dunblane, when on the 13th of March 1996 in this small Scottish town, Thomas Hamilton, a former Scout leader who had been blacklisted having committed sex-crimes against minors, opened fire inside of Dunblane Primary School. 15 were wounded, and 16 pupils aged 5 and 6 were killed, alongside their teacher. It remains the deadliest mass shooting in British history. Outraged by this senseless massacre, the people spoke and Parliament was forced to eradicate the last pointless piece of the puzzle. The private ownership of handguns and semi-automatic weapons was effectively banned in the UK, leading to some of the strictest firearms regulations in the world. Since then, almost 30 years ago, the UK hasn’t had a single school shootings… …so why was the Ferrer’s School shooting forgotten? The shooter, Darren Lloyd Fowler was born in 1972, as the eldest of four boys to Gerald, a forklift truck driver and Sandra, a housewife. Little was reported about his upbringing, but with no known criminal record, being described as having a “relatively good character”, he didn’t seem a ‘danger to society’. As a pupil at the Ferrers School, he was often truant, disruptive in class, and had a history of being abusive to teachers, but he was never violent. He had a bad academic record even though he was an avid reader, but with his interests limited to guns and war, his only friend was 16-year-old Simon Bates. With those skills, he could have joined the Army or become a military researcher, but didn’t. Being 16, he should have been preparing for his exams, but having got expelled, instead he went on a rampage. But why? The state of his mental health was never reported in the press, and his motive is lost, he told it to no-one and 38 years since the attack, most of the alleged facts are wrapped in myths and rumours. One possible motive was bullying. Graham Buchanan for the Prosecution said “he constantly suffered taunts by other pupils over his personal hygiene… they nicknamed him ‘smelly’ and ‘gypsy’”, and although all children bully and tease, “he remembered all the insults, and the times he had threatened to hit back, but little did his classmates realise when he vowed to ‘grease them’, that he meant to kill”. Another was his expulsion. The previous summer he had been suspended owing to his bad behaviour in Mr Lever’s science class, but was later re-instated after appealing to the Board of Governors. The school tried to give him counselling to put him back on track, with headmistress Barbara Smith stating “we did everything to help the boy, but he failed to respond. When his behaviour went beyond what the school could tolerate, he was expelled”, placed under the supervision of the EBD (the emotional and behavioural difficulties service) in October 1987, and was sent to a ‘special school’ in Rushden. He wasn’t a danger, he was just disruptive. He wasn’t violent, he was just deluded. A third possible motive was jealousy. In September 1987, one month before he was expelled, and four months before the attack, his friend, Simon started dating Karen Arnold, who Fowler told a psychiatrist “she was the first girl I cared for… for the first time, I realised that a relationship with someone gave a new meaning to life. Before that I didn’t think I needed anyone”. But this wasn’t love, it was obsession. When Simon broke up with Karen that December, Fowler fancied himself as her new boyfriend. As the Prosecution said “he became infatuated and jealous if anyone expressed interest in her”. He pestered her, followed her, and hung out at her part-time job. Karen said “he wouldn’t take no for an answer. But there was no way I’d have gone out with him. He was a strange lad”. And as Karen’s father recalled “he once pulled a knife on me. I just took it off him and threw it in the bushes, as easy as that”. But now the figure of Fowler’s hatred wasn’t Karen, or Simon, but her Karen’s boyfriend - Jason Williams. And then there was a fourth possible motive. On the 19th of August 1987, Michael Ryan shot and killed sixteen people in Hungerford, including his own mother, an unarmed police officer, and then himself. Across the autumn of 1987, everyone knew his name and his crimes, but his motive remains a mystery. Detective Superintendent David Johnson said “Fowler had studied (the Hungerford Massacre) closely. He could discuss the details with great authority”, with the Prosecution stating “he had indicated he had in mind to do something similar in the area of the school or his home town”, which would bring him the fame and notoriety he possibly craved, and getting revenge on those who had wronged him. But we shall never know the truth, as he never mentioned his motive to the Police and he didn’t write it in his suicide note. So, maybe he kept it to himself, maybe he didn’t know, or maybe he didn’t care? Wednesday the 8th of January 1988. It was cold, breezy and soon to be one the wettest January’s on record, it had started to rain. Unwilling to engage with the help he’d been given, Fowler had gone absent from his ‘special school’. Back home, he was visited by a worker from the Emotional & Behavioural Department. At 12:30pm, Fowler and his pal, Simon watched Critters - a 1986 comedy horror in which a group of vicious aliens are pursued to Earth by two shape-shifting bounty hunters, which (being just 2 years after the ‘video nasties’ era) the press tried to blame this as his reason for the school shooting – but this doesn’t seem to ring true. It is then said, that he walked with Simon back to the Ferrers School, and when Fowler was asked by his pal why he was winking, reports state that he said “I’m going to grease someone”, meaning to kill. He was a loner and a fantasist who was desperate for attention, so why would anyone believe him? It seems likely that his killing spree was a last minute decision, as everything about its execution was sloppy and disorganised, as if he had imagined it in his head, but hadn’t realised that reality is different. Instead of wearing light-weight clothes to make him mobile, with it being barely 5 degrees, he dressed for the cold in a baggy jumper, unbuttoned shirt, untied tie, a donkey jacket with too many straps, zips and pockets, and a pair of woollen gloves which kept his hands warm, but tended to block the trigger. In his bedroom, he wrote his Last Will and Testament in the back of an exercise book, and across those four lines, he left all of his possessions to his friend, Simon, he gave no details about his motive and implied that he was set to take his own life. And also planning to flee, he packed a survival kit of twine and matches to catch and cook rabbits, as not being committed, he said “in case I change my mind”. As a combat fanatic, he tied his legally owned sheath knives to his hip and left thigh, he packed into his pocket a length of nylon rope (possibly to tie someone up, or maybe hang himself), and knowing where his dad kept the key to the cupboard in which was held his unloaded, un-cocked, legally owned 12-bore single-barrel shotgun, he strapped the case to his back, and loaded 25 cartridges into the belt. Darren Fowler was ready to kill, and in a confined space like a school, this would be a massacre. There was just one problem - beyond his lack of skill, courage and grasp on reality – as although he had read about and was fascinated by weapons, according to Fowler, “I had never fired a gun before”. Armed to the teeth with weapons and ammo’, but thankfully lacking the skill to be a real killer, Fowler walked his usual 10 minute route from Westfields Street to Queensway in Higham Ferrers, mingling among the distracted mums and disinterested dads, many of whom may have thought that this boy was pretending to be Action Man and carrying plastic bullets, toy knives and an imitation gun. That said, this was the 1980s, so in any fishing shop, market or Army & Navy Store, there were no rules or laws to stop a teenager from legally buying any of the following; a combat knife (unrestricted until 1997), a black widow catapult (still unrestricted), nun chucks (never banned), a deactivated grenade, or semi-lethal weapons like an air rifle, which were only made illegal for the under 18s to buy in 2004. Thinking he was Stallone in Rambo or Schwarzenegger in Commando, he arrived at The Ferrers School at 3:25pm. By 3:28pm, as many of the lessons were ending, he entered the administration block. And by 3:29pm, surrounded by 100s of pupils, parents and teachers, the first shot rang out… …followed by eight minutes of terror. With no plan, his attack was as muddled as his mind and his motive, and as stated in court, “he was fascinated by the power (that weapons) gave those who used them”, but stating “I did it because it was something I’d always wanted to do”, the first shot he fired wasn’t at someone he hated or was hunting, but the ground-floor staff room window, and with the glass shattered by 12-bore pellets, the sharp shards showered the face of school teacher Jane Lucas, but diving onto the floor, she survived. An average 12-bore shotgun has a muzzle energy of 3000 ft-lbs, and with 270 lead pellets per cartridge, this shotgun was used for hunting small game and clay pigeons as at 30 to 45 metres it can be lethal, but only when aimed accurately, but as will be seen, many of his shots that day, were indiscriminate. Fowler said he was here to kill, but was he? If his motive was to get revenge on his bullies, he had picked the right moment, as being home-time, lessons were ending, students were milling about in the Quadrangle, and having heard a bang, many like Stuart Wood said “I thought it was fireworks being let off”, so he could easily have picked them off one-by-one as they panicked and screamed, but he didn’t, instead Fowler mingled among them. When questioned, he told the Police that when he saw Jason Williams, the boy he claimed (but Karen) denied was now her new boyfriend, “I wanted to shoot him”. Chasing Jason into the Science Block, some reports stated that he fired and missed, but Fowler recalled “my finger jammed. I could not do it, there were lots of kids”, so in frustration, “I went outside and fired into the air and at the walls”. Did he coward out, did he never intend to kill, or had the reality of taking a life hit home? After this, witnesses said they saw him muttering to himself about how he hated the science teacher, Ken Lever, who he blamed for his expulsion, but never found him as he randomly fired at the walls. Some pupils spoke of chaos and confusion, with Mark Dickenson recalling “the teacher told us to hit the floor”, as many hid under tables fearing for their lives. Others didn’t realise what was going on, as Peter Britchford said “I asked him what he was doing. He just turned around and told me to run”. Yet, for others, it was all a bit of a laugh, and some excitement, as Northampton Chronicle & Echo reports some pupils “egged him on”, following him and giving him the attention this bullied boy had craved. But nobody really seemed to be his target, as so far, the worst hurt except Miss Lucas was a window and a few walls. This shotgun could have been lethal in trained hands, but firing indiscriminately, no-one was hit by direct shots, but ricochetted pellets and flying glass; like 12 year-olds Ronnie Sherratt who had two pellets removed from his cheek, and Simon Druce, who had glass splinters to his left eye. This shooting could have been chaos had it not been for the professionalism of the staff, everyone did their bit from the headteacher to the part-time cleaner, as when science teacher Sue Deacon saw the gunman, “I was in the playground. I shouted for everyone to go inside. There was a tremendous bang. I was only feet away”, but through all of their quick-reactions, many lives were potentially saved. As many had, Michael Cousins, a 38-year-old English teacher, deputy head and father-of-two thought the bangs were an exhaust backfiring. Having left a mobile classroom, he told a colleague “I walked through the quadrangle, came down the stairs and literally walked into it. I realised something was going on because I heard girls screaming, but didn’t know what”, until a shot was fired from 45 feet. Fowler claimed “I meant to shoot to the side of Mr Cousins, to frighten him off. He was one of the few teachers I liked”. Hit by a glancing blow, 12 pellets embedded into his face, neck and upper body, and “at first, I didn’t realise I had been shot”, with his only concern being for the other staff and pupils, Mr Cousins covered his face to avoid distressing the students any further, and headed to the staff room. Linda Wooten, a 42-year-old part time cleaner who had a son at the school had arrived when the first shots were fired. “Mr Cousins was standing covered in blood. He had been shot in the face… they had gone through his nose and mouth and were particularly bad around his right eye”, and as a first-aider, she did the best she could until the ambulance and Police arrived, none of whom would be armed. But guns don’t bring peace, only more violence. Needing this to come to an end, 31-year-old PE teacher, Paul Greenall said “when the boy was moving around the playground, I followed him from inside the school, waiting to make a move. I saw him fire a number of shots”, and as the shotgun only fired one cartridge at a time, being a professional rugby player, Mr Greenall waiting for Fowler to reload, dashed 15 yards, and slammed hard into his back. Martin Redwood, a disabled parent who was waiting for his two daughters, knocked the shotgun out of Fowler’s reach, stripped him of his knives and with him pinned to the floor until the Police arrived, Fowler was arrested on site. Detective Superintendent David Johnson said “Mr Greenall is clearly a courageous man who acted with great calmness and presence of mind in what was a very volatile and dangerous situation. We shall never know what may have happened had it not been for his actions”. At 3:29pm, the first shot rang out. Eight minutes later, by 3:37pm, it was over. Seven shots were fired, two pupils (Ronnie Sherratt & Simon Druce) were discharged from hospital that night, two teachers (Miss Lucas and Mr Cousins) were injured but recovered well, and thankfully no-one had been killed. But if Darren Fowler had been gun-trained, if our strict laws hadn’t limited his unauthorised access to legal weapons and hadn’t banned semi-automatics, pump-action rifles and explosive ammunition, this could have been a bloody massacre. Instead, it became a footnote in history, and is largely forgotten. Mr Cousins spent four nights at Kettering General and made a good recovery. 10 pellets were removed from his face, two later from his skull and he retained the sight in his eye. On the 6th of June, six months later, he returned to work, stating “I’m back at school and my return emphasises my belief in Ferrers School… to categorise our experience as an example of violence in schools is a misrepresentation. I believe the incident was more a gesture against society than against the school. We need to appreciate that in today’s society, young people are subjected to a range of negative and violent influences…”. Like Ronnie Sherratt & Simon Druce, their mothers, both called Christine said they were “still afraid of loud noises”, and to aid the psychological recovery of at least 40 of the pupils, the school brought in ‘Service Six’, a counselling group to help them deal with emotions of guilt, anger and helplessness. Taken to Wellingborough Police Station, Darren Fowler was interviewed with his parents present. No drugs or alcohol was found in his system, he confessed but unable to give a coherent motive, and seen by a psychiatrist prior to his trial, he was described him as “unstable and potentially dangerous”. Tried at Oxford Crown Court, Darren Fowler pleaded guilty and was convicted of GBH with intent of Ronnie Sherratt, ABH of Simon Druce & Jane Lucas, possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, and unlawfully wounding Mr Cousins, with the attempted murder charge left on file. On Friday 24th of June 1988, Justice Tucker summed up “I regard you as a dangerous young man”, and under Section 53 of the 1933 Child & Young Person Act, he was held at Her Majesty’s Pleasure on a hospital order. (End) Many were shocked by the severity of Fowler’s sentence, but the Judge’s consideration was the safety of the public. The following year the school received a “glowing report by Government inspectors” and exam results were up, as headmistress Barbara Smith praised the people of the town for their support, stating “this has been a major factor in enabling the staff and pupils to return to normal life”. As for its place in the pantheon of school shootings, like Stand Farm School in 1947, Dundee in 1967 and Dormer’s Wells in 1987, Ferrers was overshadowed by the Hungerford Massacre one year before, and Dunblane in 1996, but it did play its part in changes to gun legislation for shotguns and air rifles, and a gun amnesty that September lead to 25000 legally and illegally held weapons being handed in. As happens, on the 31st of July 1988, the Conservative gun lobby in the House of Lords defeated the new changes as many Lords “rely on income from overseas visitors who come to Britain to shoot”, but with so many young children being murdered at the Dunblane Massacre, the law-makers had to relent. As for the heroes, Linda Wootten was awarded the Red Cross Special Service Cross, Paul Greenall and Martin Redwood were commended by the judge for their bravery, with Paul Greenall being awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct. But everyone was a hero that day and in the days that followed because how they dealt with the shock and the trauma. Barbara Smith later said “the school returned to normal surprisingly quickly, lessons took place the next day and school life continued”, as having learned from the incident, and never seeking to dwell on what if, it was quickly forgotten. As of today, the Ferrers School remains a strong and vibrant part of the community, and thanks to the professionalism of its staff and the laws there to protect us all, it wasn’t remembered as a tragedy. The Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast has been researched using the original declassified police investigation files, court records, press reports and as many authentic sources as possible, which are freely available in the public domain, including eye-witness testimony, confessions, autopsy reports, first-hand accounts and independent investigation, where possible. But these documents are only as accurate as those recounting them and recording them, and are always incomplete or full of opinion rather than fact, therefore mistakes and misrepresentations can be made. As stated at the beginning of each episode (and as is clear by the way it is presented) Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast is a 'dramatisation' of the events and not a documentary, therefore a certain amount of dramatic licence, selective characterisation and story-telling (within logical reason and based on extensive research) has been taken to create a fuller picture. It is not a full and complete representation of the case, the people or the investigation, and therefore should not be taken as such. It is also often (for the sake of clarity, speed and the drama) presented from a single person's perspective, usually (but not exclusively) the victim's, and therefore it will contain a certain level of bias and opinion to get across this single perspective, which may not be the overall opinion of those involved or associated. Murder Mile is just one possible retelling of each case. Murder Mile does not set out to cause any harm or distress to those involved, and those who listen to the podcast or read the transcripts provided should be aware that by accessing anything created by Murder Mile (or any source related to any each) that they may discover some details about a person, an incident or the police investigation itself, that they were unaware of.
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AuthorMichael J Buchanan-Dunne is a crime writer, podcaster of Murder Mile UK True Crime and creator of true-crime TV series. 
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