A teacher has described to a jury how he sprinted towards the scene of a fatal school stabbing after he heard the shout “knife, knife” on the staff radio system.
Thomas D’angeli was asked about the day Harvey Willgoose, 15, was killed by another 15-year-old student at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield, when he gave evidence at Sheffield Crown Court on Wednesday.
Mr D’angeli confirmed that he was in the main school hall on February 3 when he heard “knife, knife” on his radio and then “sprinted”, passing children who were “screaming and running away”.
The teacher said he came across the school’s assistant head Morgan Davis with the 15-year-old pupil who has since admitted stabbing Harvey and went on trial for his murder this week.
He said Mr Davis had a knife in his hand and that the boy was “angry, upset, aggressive, but he was compliant”.
Mr D’angeli said he heard the boy say to the assistant head: “I told you, I knew it, I lost it.”
He explained how he then went to the courtyard where the stabbing incident had happened and made a 999 call on his mobile.
When he was asked by prosecutor Richard Thyne KC whether he then went to help Harvey, Mr D’angeli appeared to get upset in the witness box as he agreed that he did.
The teacher said he had seen both boys earlier that day.
He said that Harvey, who had been having attendance problems, had come to tell him he was in school and they discussed a new coat that he had bought.
He said he told him: “I’m going to be coming in, sir.”
Mr Thyne asked him “did he appear to be in good spirits” and Mr D’angeli agreed that he did.
The teacher said he also saw the defendant that morning, who had come to seek assurances that another boy was not in school that day.
He said the boy appeared calm and he had no concerns about anything he said or how he appeared.
The jury of eight women and four men have been shown CCTV footage of the moments when Harvey was stabbed by the defendant, who cannot be named.
The jurors have been told that the teenager has admitted manslaughter but denies murder.
He has also admitted possession of a knife on school premises.
The trial has already 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.
Mr D’angeli told the jury that he was the teacher who put his arms around the defendant to remove him from the situation.
He said it was “very difficult for me to remove him from that and de-escalate” in that incident on January 29.
The teacher said the defendant was “gesturing, puffing his chest out” and said about one of the boys involved: “He acts like he’s f****** hard and I’ll bang him out.”
Mr D’angeli said he also heard the defendant shout: “He’s got a knife”.
The jury has been told it was this that led the school to go into lockdown, although the police never found a weapon.
The teacher told the court how the defendant was “very aggressive and very angry”.
Earlier on Wednesday, Home Office pathologist Dr Philip Lumb told the jury how he found an 8cm deep stab wound in Harvey’s chest which completely severed his fifth rib, nicked the rib below and had gone into one of the main pumping chambers of his heart.
The pathologist said police showed him a 13cm-long knife before he conducted a post-mortem examination on Harvey, and he agreed that this weapon was capable of causing the fatal injury.
Prosecutors have told the jury how the CCTV footage shows that the defendant stabbed Harvey twice.
Mr Thyne has told the jury that the boy eventually gave the knife to Mr Davis before telling headteacher Sean Pender: “I’m not right in the head”.
Addressing the jury earlier this 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.”
