A 16-year-old boy has been charged in connection with the fatal stabbing of Aberdeen schoolboy Bailey Gwynne, as the victim’s family paid tribute to “our beloved boy and our heart”.
In an emotional statement, the schoolboy’s relatives said: “There are no words. Bailey is our beloved boy and our heart. Our hearts have gone with him.”
Releasing a new photograph of Bailey, 16, the family described him as “a special son, brother, grandson and friend” and added that “he never failed to make us smile (most of the time)”.
“He will always be our boy. We don’t know what we will do without our junior ‘man about the house’.”
At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Ch Supt Adrian Watson confirmed that Police Scotland were not looking for anyone else in relation to the death and that further details of the charge facing the 16-year-old would be given when he appeared in court on Friday.
Police were called to Cults Academy in the west of the city at 1.30pm on Wednesday after reports of a serious incident. The teenager was taken by ambulance to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where he died from his injuries.
Watson said he expected to cease treating the school as a crime scene by the end of Thursday and that pupils could return as usual on Monday morning, when there would be special assemblies held to allow them to talk about what happened and their responses to it.
Friends and fellow pupils laid floral tributes outside Cults Academy throughout the day and many attended a vigil at the nearby parish church in the evening.
Young people came to the school gates in small groups or individually, some visibly upset, to push their bouquets through the wire fencing to build up a display of bright blooms.
As heavy rain battered the plastic wrappings throughout the day, one boy spoke of his shock as the news of the fatal stabbing spread through the school. “It’s a very good school, I’ve always felt safe there,” he said.
Like the majority of older pupils, he had left the school at lunchtime to buy snacks and returned to panic and disbelief.
Those pupils not directly involved in the incident were kept in their classrooms and reassured by teachers, then asked to leave the school grounds as soon as the final bell rang at 3.10pm.
As they filed out, police officers asked them whether they had seen anything of relevance or knew of anybody who had seen something pertinent to their inquiry. “It was pretty hard-hitting seeing the police all waiting for us,” said one girl about to lay a bunch of chrysanthemums. “It still doesn’t seem real. It feels wrong to eat. It feels wrong to do anything.”
James McMahon, 17, described how he realised that something was wrong when he looked out of a classroom window and saw police vehicles outside. “I was coming in from lunch when the bell rang for fifth period and I went to PE class. Then I saw out the window that there were police cars and riot vans in the car park. I heard the rumours but I hoped they weren’t true.”
McMahon returned home to find his mother watching the television news. “When it said that the boy had died, my head just went. I started shaking. Even my mum burst into tears.”
McMahon said he had been in the same class as Bailey since senior one. “He was a very nice person,” he said. “He didn’t deserve that.” He said the schoolboy was “quite a [physically] strong person. He went to the gym a lot.” Other friends mentioned that Bailey hoped to join armed forces after leaving school.
The dead boy had lived with his mother, her partner and his four step-siblings in the quiet village of Kirkton of Maryculter, a few miles west of the school, for seven years. His mother worked at home looking after the children while her partner was involved in the oil industry. Bailey was her eldest child, and a family friend described her as distraught, saying that she had only told his younger siblings of the teenager’s death on Thursday morning.
In the affluent cul-de-sac where the family lived, overlooking a football pitch and green church grounds, neighbours described how local children knew one another well, playing outdoor games and taking the bus to school together. Bailey was a member of the local church youth group until a year ago.
The first inkling that some adults had of the tragedy was when the school bus made its afternoon trip and unusually dropped the children off at their driveways, rather than further up the hill.
Aberdeen city council leader, Marie Boulton, a former pupil herself whose three children attend Cults, urged parents to maintain their faith in the school.
“I spoke to a lot of parents yesterday, who were obviously expressing their shock and disbelief at what had happened, but the message I was getting was ‘what can we do to support each other’.”
“We’ve had this incident, which is beyond words, but I would urge parents to seek comfort that this is something that could never have been anticipated in a million years.”
