With their themes of death and paedophilia the plays of Cho Seung Hui were seized upon yesterday as evidence of a highly disturbed mind.

Two of his single-act plays, Mr Brownstone and Richard McBeef, were published on the internet yesterday by a former classmate at Virgina Tech university.

Ian MacFarlane said: “When we read Cho’s plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn’t have even thought of.

“Before Cho got to class that day, we students were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter.”

However, Ged Bailes, head of forensic clinical psychology at the Norvic Clinic in Norwich, said that the writing did not show evidence that the author was months away from committing a massacre. “Looking at the plays on their own there is nothing there that would cause serious concern,” he said.

“If you look at the themes you can see anger and depression which might cause concern, but would find those in the writing of many adolescents.

“But these would just be tiny, tiny pieces of a jigsaw puzzle of what was going on in his life.”

He added: “If this sort of writing was disturbing people then I would ask what other stuff have you got on him?

“What you would need to look for is evidence of isolation, hopelessness and low self esteem. Has he displayed anger, is this guy losing touch with reality, does he have a problem with a relationship, does he drink, was he using drugs?

“With the benefit of hindsight people will read all sorts of things into these plays. But on their own all they prove is that he was not very good at creative writing.”

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