The death of 15-year-old Harvey Willgoose is not “any less tragic or pointless” if the boy who stabbed him is cleared of murder, a jury has been told.
A teenager, also 15, has admitted the manslaughter of Harvey at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield in February, but denies his murder.
His barrister, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC told jurors on Friday that, if they clear his client of murder “it doesn’t mean Harvey’s death is any less tragic or pointless”.
Mr Hussain said: “A loved son has lost his life, a family have been deprived of him. A family mourns him.
“Another boy of a similar age had admitted his fault and, whatever happens, will pay the price for it.”
Mr Hussain said: “(The defendant) has accepted responsibility for what he has done. He needs to pay a price, but that price must be a just one.
“A not guilty verdict to murder is the just verdict in this case, according to the evidence.”
The barrister told the jury at Sheffield Crown Court that his client had a “horrific home life” and suffered a “horrific background of bullying”.
He pointed to evidence the boy had been subjected to racist bullying and bullying related to a medical issue.
Mr Hussain said “all that was what came together” when he encountered Harvey on February 3, and this was the “final straw”.
The barrister told the jurors he wanted to explore why his client had reason to fear Harvey, telling them he wanted to make it “very, very, clear” that he was not “maligning Harvey or dishonouring his memory”.
He said: “We are not saying that Harvey was all bad or (the defendant) was all good. Nothing of the sort.”
But he discussed evidence of Harvey’s “association with football hooliganism”, one school record describing him as “extremely aggressive and threatening” and a social care record saying he “threatened aggression”.
Mr Hussain told the jury that this evidence would “help you understand why (the defendant) was in fear that day”.
He said: “When it comes to deciding whether (the defendant) was genuinely scared of Harvey, these things are important.”
The jury has heard about a range of interactions between the defendant and Harvey on the morning of February 3, and Mr Hussain said: “(The defendant) wanted to avoid Harvey. He did not want trouble.”
But he described how, in a lesson just before the tragic incident, Harvey had mocked the defendant and been aggressive towards him.
And he told the jury how, in the CCTV footage of the stabbing which has been showed several times during the trial, it could be seen that Harvey was the “first one to make it physical”.
Mr Hussain said his client thought it was an aggressive approach from Harvey and the fact that he stabbed him so hard, breaking one of his ribs and piercing his heart, was further evidence that he “lost control”.
He said his client was “so scared of being hurt, so frightened, so devoid of calm, that that boy had never ever felt this way in his life before”.
The barrister also pointed to how his client was heard to to say “you know I can’t control it”, by a teacher seconds after stabbing Harvey.
Mr Hussain told the jury this was the “best piece of evidence that you all have as to why (the defendant) did what he did”.
He said: “He said this before he’d spoken to a solicitor, before he’d spoken to anyone who could tell him what to say, before he’d even had time to think about what he’d done, to process it.”
Mr Hussain concluded his closing speech to the jury on Friday morning and the judge, Mrs Justice Ellenbogen, began summing up the evidence.
