A 16-year-old boy has appeared at Aberdeen sheriff court charged with murdering the Aberdeen schoolboy Bailey Gwynne.
The teenager was also charged with carrying a knife and another offensive weapon. He appeared at a private session at the court on Friday and did not enter a plea. He will next appear at a committal hearing on 6 November.
Police were called to Cults academy in the west of the city at 1.30pm on Wednesday after reports of a serious incident. Bailey, 16, was taken by ambulance to Aberdeen Royal infirmary where he died from his injuries.
The school remained closed on Friday, although it was no longer being treated as a crime scene. Pupils would return to classes on Monday, when special assemblies will be held encouraging them to talk about their responses to Bailey’s death.
Despite heavy rain, young people continued to lay flowers outside the gates of the academy on Friday morning, with many cards signed by pupils of other nearby schools. One teenager had left an old class photograph showing Bailey as a child, with the message “Thanks for the memories”. An expertly executed pencil drawing of the teenager had been pinned to the wire fencing, unsigned.
On Thursday evening more than 400 people, the majority of them of school age, gathered at Cults parish church for a candlelit vigil, where clergy involved with the school offered words of comfort.
Paul Watson, from St Devenick’s Scottish Episcopal church, spoke directly to Bailey’s immediate peer group, asking: “Are you going to let [his death] be an unmitigated tragedy or are you going to let it, in time, bring you together like no year group has ever been brought together?
“I believe in you guys and I believe you can turn this into something you will be remembered for.”
