A teenage boy has been found guilty of murdering another pupil in the school, after a jury rejected his claim that he lost control due to a long history of bullying.
The 15-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, stabbed Harvey Willgoose, also 15, in the heart during their lunch break at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on February 3.
He had pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of loss of control, but denied murder, arguing his actions were the ‘end result of a long period of bullying, poor treatment and violence’.
But a trial heard the boy had a reputation for bringing weapons, including an axe, into school and was seen ‘acting like he had a knife’ in an apparent effort to intimidate Harvey on the morning of the attack.
A jury of eight women and four men at Sheffield Crown Court have today convicted him of murder by a majority of 11-1, following 14 hours and 34 minutes of deliberation.
Harvey’s family could be heard saying ‘yes!’ in public gallery as verdict were returned. The defendant, who will be sentenced on October 22, was emotionless in the dock.
The school is now facing questions over its failure to act on a series of warning signs about the boy’s murderous potential, which Harvey’s family believe could have prevented the killing.
The boy was not searched when he arrived that day despite being at the centre of a knife scare a week earlier and the school knowing he had a history of possessing dangerous weapons.
A teacher then failed to raise the alarm when Harvey told her around an hour before he was stabbed that the defendant was acting like he had a knife hidden in his jacket.
Harvey Willgoose, 15, died from a stab wound to the heart when he was attacked at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield
The school is now facing questions over its failure to act on a series of warning signs about the escalating knife culture among pupils
Harvey’s mother, Caroline, has accused the school of failing to act on multiple red flags about the boy who stabbed him
Harvey Willgoose’s mother and father arriving at court for the verdict on Friday
Harvey’s family, pictured arriving at court yesterday as the jury continued deliberations, have been present for most days of the trial
The boy also had a history of explosive outbursts in school.
Following the verdicts, Harvey’s mother Caroline Willgoose told the Mail: ‘Nothing was done. How many flags do they want?’
The school said in a statement that it recognised Harvey’s death had given rise to questions from his family, adding it would ‘engage fully and openly with them to help ensure every angle is considered and no key questions are left unresolved’.
The police watchdog has also confirmed it has asked South Yorkshire Police to investigate a complaint ‘in relation to the actions and decision-making by officers regarding the alleged offender prior to the incident’.
‘A complaint was also made regarding the actions of a South Yorkshire Police officer following the incident on 4 February,’ the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said in a statement, adding this complaint too would be investigated by the force.
The trial heard that the defendant had a history of being bullied over a medical condition and became increasingly scared for his own personal safety in the months before the killing.
He claimed he had bought an axe from another pupil in school, as well as several knives off the internet, and posed menacingly with them in pictures and videos he posted on social media.
In December last year, his mother found the axe in his gym bag and informed the school, who called the police. He was then visited by a police officer who warned him at length about the dangers of carrying weapons – but he insisted that the axe was not his.
Harvey, however, had barely attended school that term and only found himself the focus of the defendant’s rage when he made the fatal mistake of supporting another boy with whom he had fallen out.
The school had been placed into lockdown on January 29, which was brought about by the defendant telling teachers that the other boy had threatened to stab him and his friend.
Police attended, but did not find any weapon on him.
Over that weekend, Harvey expressed support for the other boy in a group Snapchat conversation, leading him and the defendant to row ‘non-stop’ for several hours.
It culminated with the defendant warning Harvey in a private message on the morning of the attack: ‘If u wan beef we can hav it.’
Yet teachers seem not to have fully appreciated the risk that the defendant, with his history of possessing weapons, might arm himself for self-defence when he next attended school after he allegedly received this stabbing threat the week before.
The 15-year-old boy was convicted of murder after a jury rejected his claim that he lost control due to a long history of bullying
Harvey and the defendant fell out on social media in the days before the stabbing, but they had once been friends, his trial heard
Instead of a precautionary search, a teacher simply asked if he had ‘brought anything with him’ and took the defendant at his word when he said he had not.
The pupil who had allegedly threatened the defendant the previous week was not in school that day, but Harvey was.
CCTV from the school showed, over the course of the morning, the defendant in a series of escalating confrontations with Harvey, which the prosecution said were attempts to ‘wind him up’.
Around an hour before the stabbing, the defendant squared up to Harvey in a science lesson and gestured with his hand inside his jacket pocket ‘like he had a knife’.
Harvey was said to have been ‘confused’ by his aggression, but when he told teacher Eleanor Kidder about the defendant acting like he had something in his pocket, she failed to escalate it.
He told the teacher: ‘I didn’t come to school to fight.’
Tragically, within an hour, Harvey was dead.
At 12.15pm, when the lunch break started, Harvey approached the defendant in the school courtyard to confront him and he could be seen on CCTV pushing the defendant’s shoulder.
The defendant immediately produced a knife from a coat pocket and lunged at Harvey, twice.
The first stab wound pierced his heart and was dealt with such ferocity it broke through a rib, while the second was a more glancing blow as Harvey retreated.
The entire confrontation lasted just nine seconds. Within 49 seconds, Harvey had collapsed to the floor and slipped into unconsciousness.
Harvey’s parents, Mark and Caroline, attended every day of the trial of their son’s killer at Sheffield Crown Court
The coffin of Harvey Willgoose was adorned with pictures of his beloved Sheffield United Football Club
The hearse carrying Harvey pictured at his funeral, which attracted hundreds of mourners in Sheffield in February
Giving evidence at the trial, the defendant told the jury he was so badly bullied he developed anger issues ‘I can’t control’.
He claimed he came to school that day terrified he would get jumped and stabbed by associates of the boy who allegedly threatened him during the lockdown incident the week before.
But he also said Harvey had threatened to stab him during the morning break and that, when they squared up in the science lesson, he then warned he would ‘smash you all over’.
In the courtyard, he said he had tried to shake Harvey’s hand, but he refused and told him: ‘I will do you in and I will do you in proper this time.’
Asked about the moment Harvey approached him, the boy said: ‘He looked angry, as if he was going to do something. He had one hand out and one hand a bit in his trousers around his waistline.
‘I thought he had a knife on him…I thought I would get stabbed by Harvey.’
But he told jurors he did not remember the moment of the stabbing itself, saying: ‘I was out of control in myself…I was out of control in my emotions and what I was doing.’
He added that in the seconds before he dealt the fatal blow he thought about ‘how I had been bullied for so long’.
But the prosecution said his ‘loss of control’ explanation was undermined by evidence from a pupil and Ms Kidder who were both told by Harvey about him acting like he had a knife when they squared up.
The school failed to search the 15-year-old killer despite him being involved in a knife scare less than a week earlier
The prosecution said that the CCTV clearly showed the defendant acting with controlled aggression rather than losing self-control
Richard Thyne KC said the defendant had ‘an unhealthy and apparently longstanding interest in weapons’ – and he even posed for pictures with his knives on school premises.
Another boy, who was a friend of Harvey’s, told the court that the defendant had asked him to feel the outline of an axe he had smuggled into school hidden in his trousers several months before the attack.
He said it was the prosecution’s case that the defendant got ‘worked up in anger about Harvey’ and the CCTV of the stabbing demonstrated he was displaying ‘controlled aggression’ rather than a loss of control.
Mr Thyne told the jury: ‘When you watch that CCTV, you can see that, far from being a legal loss of control, this was aggression likely explained as an act of retribution, getting back at Harvey.
‘In the event, those actions that you see, would never, never be seen as a type of action of someone with normal tolerance and self-restraint in the defendant’s situation.
‘We say it’s not the sort of conduct that would ever be justified in a school playground.’
Steve Davies, CEO of St Clare Catholic Multi Academy Trust which includes All Saints Catholic High School, said: ‘We think especially of Harvey’s family, loved ones and friends today. We cannot begin to imagine the immeasurable impact the loss of Harvey has had on them.
‘Harvey was a much-loved, positive and outgoing pupil whose memory will be cherished by all who knew him. As a community we have been devastated by his death and we continue to think of him every day.
‘Harvey’s death was an unimaginable tragedy for all, and one that understandably gives rise to a number of questions from his family and others.
‘Now that the trial has finished, a number of investigations aimed at addressing and answering these questions will be able to proceed. We will engage fully and openly with them to help ensure every angle is considered and no key questions are left unresolved.’
