A schoolboy who stabbed another pupil to death on their lunch break has been found guilty of murder.
Harvey Willgoose, 15, was stabbed in the heart in front of horrified children by another 15-year-old boy who had brought a hunting knife to All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on February 3
Sheffield Crown Court heard how other pupils fled “in fear and panic,” with some locking themselves in a school cupboard, after the fatal attack.
The defendant, who cannot be named because of his age, admitted manslaughter but denied murder, saying he “snapped” after a long period of bullying and does not remember what happened.
But prosecutors said he “wanted to show he was hard” and “knew exactly what he was doing”.
On Friday, a jury found him guilty of murder by a majority of 11 to one after deliberating for over 14 hours.
Sheffield Crown Court heard the stabbing was probably an “act of retribution, to “get back at Harvey for something”.
The trial heard the two boys fell out several days before Harvey’s death after taking opposite sides in a dispute between two other boys.
Prosecutors said the defendant had an “unhealthy” interest in weapons and had photos on his phone of him posing with other hunting-style knives and a machete.
The court heard he also “had a significant history of becoming angry and using violence at school”.
Prosecutor Richard Thyne KC said the defendant had 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”.
He told jurors that on the day of the stabbing, CCTV footage showed him trying to provoke Harvey, who remained “peaceful”.
The court heard Harvey told his friends that the defendant had been “acting like he had a knife” under his jumper in their science lesson that morning, but thought he was bluffing.
Jurors were told Harvey was happily talking to his friends in a courtyard as lunch break started, when the defendant approached him.
One teenage witness said there was an altercation and the defendant punched and pushed Harvey, causing him to stumble backwards, before pulling out a knife and stabbing him.
Another girl who gave evidence said: “We went inside to go and tell a teacher, but the teacher was frozen as well. She didn’t know what to do.”
She said: “People were running, screaming everywhere. It was, like, chaos.”
The defendant told the trial that suffering racist bullying and taunts about a medical condition meant he got angry quickly and “couldn’t control it”.
The boy told the jury his mother had mental health problems and his father, who hit him, was often not there.
He told the court he took the knife to school because he thought he was going to get hurt that day.
He said Harvey looked angry when he brought up a previous dispute, and had one hand in his trousers, which made him think the schoolboy had a knife.
Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, defending, 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.”
