A knife-obsessed teenager who stabbed another boy to death was unmasked yesterday after a judge locked him up for at least 16 years.
Mohammed Umar Khan, 15, was named as the killer of Harvey Willgoose, also 15.
Khan stabbed Harvey in the heart during a nine-second confrontation in front of other pupils during their lunch break at All Saints Catholic High School, Sheffield, on February 3.
They had fallen out on social media shortly before the attack. He was convicted of murder in August, when he failed to persuade a jury at Sheffield Crown Court that his actions amounted to manslaughter because bullying had led him to lose his control.
Mrs Justice Ellenbogen yesterday lifted a reporting restriction which had prevented the defendant being named.
She accepted arguments from the Press that lifting the restrictions would act as a deterrent to potential offenders while increasing public understanding of the scourge of knife crime.
The judge said: ‘The public will wish to know the identity of those who commit serious offences in seeking to understand how a child of that age could do so.’
It can also now be disclosed that Khan, referred to as Umar throughout the trial, was born and raised in Sheffield – hailing from a Pakistani family.
Knife-obsessed Mohammed Umar Khan, 15, was named as the killer of Harvey Willgoose, also 15
Pictured: The blade that Khan used to kill Harvey at their school in February
Harvey Willgoose, 15, was stabbed through the heart at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield
He was in the same year as Harvey, but had only met him the previous September, when he joined All Saints after leaving his previous school because of bullying.
The trial heard Khan had been targeted by other pupils over a catheter that he had fitted for a kidney issue and that he became increasingly scared for his own personal safety in the months before the killing.
He described a difficult home life during his evidence, claiming his mother had mental issues and his father – who was often in Pakistan and absent from the family home – would beat him for minor indiscretions.
Social services visited the family in December last year after concerns were reported to them that Khan and his siblings were not being fed properly.
The referral stated that the children looked skinny and malnourished, did not own pyjamas and had no sheets on their beds.
But, after a visit to the family home, social services concluded no further action was required.
A psychiatrist said in a report to the court that Khan had been subjected to ‘excessive physical punishment’ at home.
Describing his mother’s mental health issues, Khan said ‘she would just stand there and stare into nothing’ and frighten them by running the taps to their hottest temperature before holding her hands under the scalding water.
The mugshot of Mohammed ‘Umar’ Khan who was sentenced for murder on Wednesday
Against the backdrop of his troubled homelife, Khan developed what the judge yesterday described as a ‘long-standing interest in weapons’.
Police last night released some of the chilling material recovered from his phone, including a video, recorded at school, showing him lunging with a knife he bought on the internet. It was a replica of a weapon from the video game Assassin’s Creed.
Another picture showed him posing with the five inch (13cm) hunting knife he would later use to murder Harvey.
During his evidence, Khan claimed he posted the images online because he was scared of being attacked and wanted to project a fearsome image.
The judge gave short shrift to his explanation, telling Khan his explanation were ‘put simply, not believable’.
In December last year, his mother found an axe in his gym bag and told the school, which called the police.
He was then visited by a police officer who warned him about the dangers of carrying weapons. He insisted that the axe was not his.
Harvey had barely attended school that term and only found himself the focus of Khan’s rage when he made the fatal mistake of supporting another boy with whom Khan had fallen out during a social media row.
The row related to an incident in the school five days before the fatal stabbing, on January 29. On that day, Khan tried to intervene in an altercation involving two other boys and had to be restrained by a teacher.
When he claimed one of these boys had a knife, a lockdown was declared and police were called, although no weapon was found.
Harvey’s mother, Caroline, previously told the Daily Mail that Khan’s involvement in the knife scare represented a critical missed opportunity and, at very least, he should have been searched when he arrived at school on February 3.
Police officers and floral tributes are seen outside All Saints Catholic High School where the murder took place
On the morning of the attack, CCTV from the school showed Khan in a series of escalating confrontations with Harvey.
Khan squared up to Harvey in a science lesson around an hour before the stabbing and gestured with his hand inside his jacket pocket ‘like he had a knife’.
At 12.15pm, when the lunch break started, Harvey approached Khan in the school courtyard and he could be seen on CCTV pushing Khan’s shoulder. Khan pulled a knife from a coat pocket and lunged at Harvey, twice.
The first stabbing pierced his heart and was dealt with such ferocity it broke through a rib, while the second was a glancing blow as Harvey retreated.
The confrontation lasted just nine seconds. Within 49 seconds, Harvey had collapsed and slipped into unconsciousness.
The boy then told a teacher as he handed over the murder weapon: ‘I’m not right in the head. My mum doesn’t look after me right.’
In an exclusive interview with this newspaper in August, Ms Willgoose attacked the school for failing to stop Khan, saying: ‘I blame them.
‘I blame them more than him. There were so many red flags.’
She watched the sentencing hearing from the public gallery with other members of Harvey’s family, including his father Mark and sister Sophie – who read a statement to the court on behalf of the family. She said ‘our whole world was shattered forever’ by Harvey’s death.
Passing a sentence of life with a minimum term of 16 years, Mrs Justice Ellenbogen told Khan: ‘I’m sure that you didn’t act to any extent in self-defence or fear of violence.’
The judge continued: ‘I’m also satisfied by the point at which you came to stab him, you were the aggressor.’
Khan showed no emotion as he was sentenced.
