The mother of Harvey Willgoose said “a big weight’s been lifted off my shoulders” after the boy who murdered her son at their school in Sheffield was detained for a minimum of 16 years.
Caroline Willgoose was speaking after the 15-year-old boy who stabbed Harvey was named for the first time.
A judge lifted a ban on naming Mohammed Umar Khan ahead of his sentencing at Sheffield Crown Court on Wednesday.
During his sentencing, the defendant was told by judge Mrs Justice Ellenbogen: “You were the aggressor and… you acted in hurt and anger at what you considered to be his betrayal of your friendship.”
Khan took a hunting knife to school and stabbed Harvey, 15, in the heart in front of horrified children.
The boy was found guilty of murder in August.
The judge on Wednesday described the murder as “a serious crime carried out by one pupil against another on school property”.
She also said that the “public will wish to know the identity of those who commit such serious offences”, and said that Khan’s age was not a sufficient reason for him to remain anonymous.
After Khan was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court, Ms Willgoose, said she was pleased Khan had been “made an example of”.
She said: “I feel like a big weight’s been lifted off my shoulders, to be honest.
“We just need to get on with our lives and try and do good things for our Harvey, for those kids.”
She added: “He (Khan) doesn’t look like he’s sorry but I just hope that’s his mask.”
The jury in Khan’s trial was shown CCTV footage of the incident, which showed how he stabbed Harvey twice.
One of those blows cut through one of his ribs and pierced his heart.
Jurors heard how Khan told All Saints’ headteacher Sean Pender immediately after the stabbing: “I’m not right in the head. My mum doesn’t look after me right.”
The school’s assistant head, Morgan Davis, took the knife off the defendant and heard him say “you know I can’t control it”, which the teacher took to be a reference to his anger issues, given previous incidents of violent behaviour at school.
The jury was told how Harvey and Khan fell out following an incident in the school five days before the fatal stabbing, on 29 January.
On that day, Khan tried to intervene in an altercation involving two other boys and had to be restrained by a teacher.
When he claimed one of these boys had a knife, a lockdown was declared and police were called, although no weapon was found.
Harvey was not at school that day and stayed off for the rest of the week, texting his father: “Am not going in that school while people have knives.”
Over the weekend before the stabbing, Harvey and Khan fell out on social media, with each siding with a different boy involved in the lockdown incident.
When Khan returned to school on 3 February, he was asked by Mr Davis whether he had anything he should not and said he did not.
The jury heard about a series of encounters between Harvey and Khan that morning before the defendant pulled out the knife and used it just after the start of the lunch break, which began at 12.10pm.
The court was shown images and video found on the defendant’s phone, which captured him posing with knives and other weapons, and was told how he had used search terms relating to weapons on the internet.
Khan told the court that he decided to carry a knife for protection as he feared other teenagers who he believed were carrying weapons.
His barrister, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, told the jury that the defendant “snapped” after years of bullying and “an intense period of fear at school”.
Since Harvey’s death, his family have campaigned against knife crime, with a particular focus on getting knife arches into schools.
Harvey’s parents, Mark and Caroline, watched from the back row of the public gallery as the sentencing got underway on Wednesday.
Also present were other family members, including Harvey’s sister Sophie, who told the court earlier how her brother’s murder was “not just a crime against my brother, it was a crime against all of us who loved him”.
She added that her brother “had a cheeky character, a brilliant sense of humour and a warmth that made everyone love him”.
Ms Willgoose said the tragedy has taken a huge toll on her family.
She said this included her father, Harvey’s “best friend”, who died last week.
Mrs Willgoose said: “My dad couldn’t cope with the grief and he found out he’d got cancer just after.
“I said ‘this is going to kill my dad’, and it did.”
She continued: “The pain will remain with us for the rest of our lives.”
Ms Willgoose said her family are “struggling to comprehend the fact that Harvey was murdered in the most cruel and inhumane way”.
Khan’s family sat in the front row of the gallery, which looks down on the courtroom at Sheffield Crown Court.
Khan wore a waterproof black hoodie in the glass-fronted dock, and he was flanked by three security guards and an intermediary.
