A teenager was “happy and just talking to his friends” moments before he was stabbed to death at his school, a fellow student has told a jury.
The trial of a 15-year-old boy accused of murdering Harvey Willgoose, also 15, at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, was played a pre-recorded police interview with a girl on Monday, who described how Harvey was stabbed twice.
Jurors have seen CCTV footage of the incident in a courtyard at the school at the start of the lunch break on February 3.
In her video interview, the girl said Harvey was “fine” when he came outside for the lunch break.
She said: “He was happy, and he was just talking to his friends.”
The teenager said the defendant came out and Harvey approached him.
She said Harvey asked the boy what he was saying in a class before lunch and “have you got a problem?”.
The witness said the defendant then punched Harvey before pushing him, causing him to stumble backwards.
The girl described how the defendant then “pulled a knife out” and stabbed Harvey twice with a black knife, showing the interviewing detectives where the blows landed on her own body.
She said Harvey stumbled back again and said to the other boy: “What are you doing? Why have you just done that.”
The girl said she left to find a teacher and members of staff then came running out.
She told the police: “Everyone was panicking and running.”
The girl said the last time she saw Harvey his shirt was covered in blood.
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.
The trial has also heard about previous incidents in the school involving the defendant, including one five days before Harvey was stabbed which led to the school going 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.
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 was adjourned until Tuesday.
