A schoolboy who stabbed a fellow pupil to death on their lunch break “wanted to show he was hard” and had become “obsessed” with weapons in the weeks before the killing, prosecutors have told a jury.
The 15-year-old is on trial accused of murdering Harvey Willgoose, also 15, who was killed at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on February 3.
The defendant, who cannot be named, has admitted manslaughter but denies murder, saying he lost control and does not remember what happened.
Giving his closing speech to jurors on Thursday, prosecutor Richard Thyne KC said the stabbing was “purposeful aggression, likely explained as an act of retribution, getting back at Harvey for something”.
The trial has heard the two boys fell out several days before Harvey’s death after taking opposite sides in a dispute between two other boys.
Mr Thyne said the defendant had ordered the hunting knife he used to kill Harvey before that incident, and was someone with an “unhealthy interest in weapons” who had talked about “shanking” someone when he was 13 years old.
He told jurors the defendant had posted videos on social media with weapons, which he admitted posting because he “wanted some people to know he carried a knife” and “wasn’t someone to be messed with”.
Mr Thyne said the boy’s internet searches showed “not just someone with a growing fascination with weapons, but someone who really wanted to own them”.
He said: “You may think the searches aren’t conducted by someone who has a specific and deep-rooted fear of someone, but by someone who’s become obsessed.”
He told the court the defendant had also researched rage rooms and, just over a week before the fatal stabbing, searched “waiting for someone to swing so I can let out my anger”.
Mr Thyne said this was echoed in the defendant’s behaviour on the day he stabbed Harvey, and showed CCTV clips from the school which he said showed him trying to provoke Harvey, who remained “peaceful”.
The trial has heard evidence from another pupil who said Harvey told him the defendant had been acting like he had a knife under his jumper that morning, but Harvey had thought he was bluffing.
Mr Thyne said: “It’s just a tragedy Harvey didn’t realise (the defendant) reaching for, or indicating he had, a knife in (a science lesson), was genuine.”
He told the court that in footage of the fatal attack on Harvey, the defendant could be seen unzipping his coat, putting his hand in his pocket, and taking out the knife.
“He was acting with thought, with purpose and knew exactly what he was doing,” he told jurors.
The prosecutor said the school’s headteacher had told police that after the stabbing, the defendant had told him he knifed Harvey “once, maybe twice”.
Mr Thyne said: “This proves the lie when he says he can’t remember. He knew then, just as he knows now, exactly what he’d done.”
The prosecutor added the defendant was “motivated by wanting to show he was hard, sending out a message about who he was, someone not to be messed with”.
Starting his closing address to the jury, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, defending, said the defendant “snapped” after years of bullying and “an intense period of fear at school”.
He told jurors: “Tragically, Harvey was a combination of being the final straw that broke (the defendant) and the unintended face of a series of threats of violence and bullying he had suffered in recent months.
“We say he suffered a loss of control which resulted in horrific and tragic consequences.”
Mr Hussain said: “It is a frightening state of affairs that boys and young men think the way to stay safe is by carrying a knife.
“It’s like a nuclear arms race, and all that happens is the likelihood of them being used increases.
“The sad truth is boys involved in this case, at the very least, were keen to make people think they did carry knives, keen to make people think they were ready to use them, and keen to make people think they knew older and more violent boys who were ready to do the same.”
The trial continues.
