Can Ann Maguire’s killer ever be rehabilitated?

As the family of Ann Maguire watched Will Cornick plead guilty to murdering the devoted wife, mother and teacher, everyone packed into Leeds Crown Court was looking for answers.

So too were her former pupils, the many colleagues the 61-year-old had worked alongside during her 40 year career at Corpus Christi Catholic College and no doubt the teenager’s own family. However, as the chilling details unfolded, it quickly became clear that there would be no logical explanation as to why a teenager, who three years earlier was described as model pupil, became a killer.

Before Will Cornick arrived at the Halton Moor school on April 28 this year, armed with a bag of knives and a bottle of Jack Daniels with which he planned to toast the successful completion of his macabre plan, he had none of the obvious hallmarks of a killer.

He came from a good family, he was academically bright and while his irrational hatred of Mrs Maguire had spilled over during a number of incidents a couple of months earlier, no one appeared to have any inkling of what Cornick was capable of. Even the reports which were presented to the court were unable to pinpoint a trigger.

All psychiatrist Dr John Kent would say was that while he didn’t consider Cornick had a psychotic or psychiatric illness, he did believe he had what he described as “an emerging personality disorder”. He also said the 16-year-old’s personality had been affected by what is known as an adjustment disorder.

However, none of those medical terms shed much light on how Cornick was able to describe what he did that spring morning as “fine and dandy”.

“One of the overwhelming features of this case is the complete lack of empathy displayed by this teenage boy,” says consultant clinical child psychologist Dr Carol Burniston. “That’s not a symptom associated with an adjustment disorder, which tends to be linked to a particular source of stress and results in feelings of depression, which generally last at the most around six months.”

During the hearing, there was a suggestion that a change in Cornick’s personality occurred three years ago, around the same time that he was diagnosed with diabetes and the condition had also meant his plans to join the Army had unravelled. However, whatever frustration he may have felt, it hardly explained the irrational hatred he directed towards not only Mrs Maguire, but also two other teachers who he apparently wanted to kill as part of a triple homicide.

“Why he killed Ann Maguire remains a mystery,” adds Carol, who is based in Wakefield. “However, diagnosing a personality disorder is incredibly complex and psychiatrists tend to be reluctant to do so in those under the age of 18, because once you have been given that label, it is something that you have to live with forever.

“Any diagnosis of this kind is a process of elimination. Generally, depression and anxiety are the first to be ruled out. These are obviously much more common in teenagers, but can share some of the same initial symptoms as a much more severe personality disorder.

“Highly intelligent individuals who don’t empathise with others may also fit the profile of someone with Asperger’s, so again that would need to be looked at. However, even once all those had been discounted a psychiatrist might still refer to someone as displaying signs an ‘emerging psychosis’.”

Carol has many years experience in the field of clinical child psychology and says that many youngsters who suffer psychotic episodes hide both their extent and their frequency.

“Anyone who experiences a psychotic episode find it incredibly frightening, but for very young people it can be even more so. If someone hears voices, which tell them to do all sorts of horrific things, they can be very reluctant to admit it and it can take a very long time for them to confide in someone. I suspect in the case of someone like Will Cornick it will take months, possibly years before we know the full extent of his mental state.”

While a significant amount of research has been carried out into what causes personality disorders, few conclusions have been drawn.

“There is research which shows that the part of the brain responsible for feeling emotion is much less developed in psychopaths than it is in you or I,” says Dr Elizabeth Yardley, a reader in criminology at the University of Birmingham. “It means that when you show them, for example, images which most of us would find disturbing they feel nothing.

“Will Cornick would appear to have a psychopathic personality disorder, but that kind of diagnosis doesn’t have to represent the end of everything. While he will always be self-interested and want to pursue his desires at the expense of others, through psychotherapy you can learn to temper that tendency.

“However, in order for that treatment to work, individuals have to want to change and Will Cornick appears to be a very extreme case and certainly the youngest person I have ever come across who has displayed this kind of behaviour.

“I have seen people come out of psychotherapy very different people to how they went in, but they tend to be older and by the time they request treatment they have often been in prison a long time. It’s almost as though they reach a point where they become sick of themselves. I don’t think Will Cornick is at that point yet and there is a chance he may never get there.”

In one unemotional Facebook message sent to a friend last December, Cornick, who despite passing five GCSE exams a year early feared he would not do well at college, said he wanted to end up in prison so he would not have to worry about life or money.

“The case is so horrific that it is almost impossible to rationalise,” says Erwin James, a convicted murderer. He became a columnist for the Guardian while serving 20 years in prison and since his release in 2004 has continued to write articles on the criminal justice system. “However, we do need to ask ‘Can there be a way back for this boy?’. If the answer is no, then fine, name him, hand out a minimum 20 year sentence and let’s effectively write him off. However, if we believe that rehabilitation is possible then you have to say that the sentence was too harsh. He might have aspired to prison, but the reality is something else altogether, particularly for someone from his background.

“Will Cornick has not shown any remorse and if that continues he will never be allowed to walk free. However, what if in 10 years time, he has? What if he has understood the extent of his crimes, the impact on the Maguire family, on his family and the wider community. What if the authorities believe that he could have a future on the outside? In a case like this there are no easy answers, but there are difficult questions which we must ask ourselves.”