A schoolboy tried to persuade his friend to hand over a knife just moments before he fatally stabbed another boy, a court has heard.
Harvey Willgoose, 15, died from a stab wound to the heart after he was attacked by another pupil in the courtyard of All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on February 3.
The teenage attacker, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded guilty to Harvey’s manslaughter by reason of loss of control, but is now on trial at Sheffield Crown Court accused of murder.
A pupil at the school has described how he had been with the defendant in a corridor next to the courtyard at the start of the lunch break when the fatal attack took place.
In a recorded police interview that was played to the jury today, the boy said: ‘He said he had a knife in his pocket. I said “give it to me before you do something stupid”, but he didn’t listen.’
The conversation was said to have taken place as the boy and the defendant spent around two minutes walking down the length of the cafeteria corridor.
Around an hour earlier, Harvey and the defendant had squared up to each other in a lesson, after falling out on social media over the weekend.
The boy said: ‘We were talking about Harvey because he was mad at him, then he suddenly just talked about a knife, I don’t know why. He said that him and Harvey had argued in science.
‘I didn’t know what he was going to do with it because he was mad as well with Harvey.’
Harvey Willgoose, 15, died from a stab wound to the heart after he was attacked by another pupil in the courtyard of All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on February 3
A pupil at the school told police that he tried to persuade his friend to hand over a knife just moments before he fatally stabbed Harvey
The fatal attack took place around an hour after the defendant and Harvey had squared up in a science lesson
Pupils have told the trial at Sheffield Crown Court of the horrifying moment they realised Harvey had been stabbed in the school courtyard
The defendant walked out into the courtyard where he was approached by Harvey and they started pushing each other, the boy said.
The defendant then pulled out a five-inch hunting knife and stabbed Harvey, twice.
Earlier, a teenage girl described how she ran when she saw a fellow pupil with a knife and was scared he could ‘turn around and do it to someone else’.
In the recording of her police interview, the teenager said she was inside the school when she heard a commotion outside, thought a fight was going on and, ‘like normal teenagers’, she and her friend went to see what was happening.
‘I heard everyone screaming and shouting,’ she told the officers.
She said: ‘I just saw Harvey lifeless, covered in blood.’
And she said: ‘I saw the blood on the shirt. The shirt was covered.’
The girl told the police: ‘He was pale, lifeless.’
Harvey’s parents, Mark and Caroline, have attended every day of the trial of the boy accused of murdering their son
Jurors have seen CCTV footage of Harvey being stabbed twice in a courtyard at the school at the start of the lunch break on February 3
The jurors have been told that the defendant, who cannot be named, has admitted manslaughter but denies murder
She said the defendant was holding a knife and shouting: ‘Come on, come on, what now?’
The teenager said the defendant, who was about two metres away from her, seemed ‘really mad’ and ‘I knew that he’d done it’.
Asked how she was feeling at this point, the witness said: ‘I was really scared.
‘But I was thinking “if he’s able to do that to him while he was mad, he could just turn around and do it to someone else”.’
She explained how she became concerned for a younger pupil, saying she told her: ‘Run, he’s got a knife, he’s just stabbed somebody.’
The girl said she ‘grabbed’ the younger girl and ran.
Jurors have seen CCTV footage of Harvey being stabbed twice in a courtyard at the school at the start of the lunch break on February 3.
The jurors have been told that the defendant, who cannot be named, has admitted manslaughter but denies murder.
He has also admitted possession of a knife on school premises.
Harvey was a passionate Sheffield United fan – with his coffin adorned with pictures of the club at his funeral
Giving evidence today, the teenage girl was asked about an incident five days before the fatal stabbing, when the school went into lockdown.
According to prosecutors, two members of staff physically intervened in a dispute between two other students and the defendant had to be restrained as he tried to get involved.
The jury has been told it was the defendant’s claim that one boy had a knife that led the school to go into lockdown, although the police who responded never found a weapon.
Harvey was not in school that day.
The girl told the court how she discussed this incident with the defendant through voice notes on Snapchat on the day it happened – January 29.
She said the boy told her that he punched a teacher, sending her a video of his injured knuckles, and said he pulled out a knife during the incident.
Addressing the jury last week, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, defending, said: ‘(The defendant) did not set out to kill or seriously hurt anyone.
‘The defence say (the defendant’s) actions that day were the end result of a long period of bullying, poor treatment and violence, things that built one upon another until he lost control and did tragically what we’ve all seen.’
The trial continues.
