Harvey Willgoose murder trial: Boy said ‘I’m not right in the head’ after fatally stabbing pupil, jury told

Sheffield Crown Court was shown “shocking” footage of the stabbing incident at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on February 3, which left 15-year-old Harvey Willgoose dead and other pupils fleeing “in fear and panic”.

Richard Thyne KC, prosecuting, told the jury that after the incident, the defendant told All Saints’ head Sean Pender: “I’m not right in the head. My mum doesn’t look after me right. I’ve stabbed him.”

The prosecutor said the boy confirmed to Mr Pender he was referring to Harvey, and that he had stabbed him once or twice.

Mr Thyne said: “Whilst waiting for the emergency services to arrive, (the defendant) also told Mr Pender that he was carrying the knife for protection.”

The prosecutor told the jury how the altercation happened in a school courtyard just as the lunch break was starting.

He played the CCTV footage to the jurors, telling them: “It is shocking, but it is necessary to play it.”

Mr Thyne said the prosecution case is that the CCTV shows Harvey appearing to put his left hand on the defendant’s right arm before the defendant “takes a knife out of his left pocket, passes it across into his right hand, and then stabs twice at Harvey’s torso”.

He said the defendant then advances towards Harvey, who backs away across the courtyard, before “(the defendant) returns towards where the incident began, gesturing towards Harvey with his knife, and appearing to shout at Harvey”.

The video shows Harvey running towards the defendant, who then advances for a second time, “bouncing on his toes, still brandishing the knife”, the prosecutor said, adding that then “Harvey backs away”.

Mr Thyne said “other pupils fled in fear and panic” as the defendant went into the dining hall still holding the knife.

Staff members Carolyn Siddall and Rachel Hobkirk approached the boy as he “was dancing around on his toes and waving the knife around, although by this stage he seemed to be saying ‘I’m not going to hurt anyone'”, the prosecutor said.

He added: “They told him to put the knife down but he did not do so.”

He told the jury assistant head Morgan Davis arrived and “found the defendant still waving the knife around”.

As Mr Davis told him to hand over the knife, the defendant was saying to him: “You know I can’t control it,” which Mr Thyne said the teacher took to be a reference to his anger issues, given previous incidents of violent behaviour at school.

The prosecutor said: “Mr Davis held his hand out and took the knife from (the defendant). At the same time the headteacher, Mr Pender, placed his arm around (the defendant)’s shoulder and took him along the corridor to his office.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Thyne told the jury Harvey was stabbed in the heart with a hunting knife which had a 13cm, serrated-edged blade.

Mr Thyne told jurors the defendant “admits that he stabbed Harvey causing his death”.

He said: “He also admits that the stabbing was not carried out in lawful self-defence.”

The jury has heard the defendant has admitted Harvey’s manslaughter, but denies murdering him.

The boy, who cannot be named, has also admitted possession of a knife on school premises.

The defendant sat in the glass-fronted dock, wearing a white shirt with no tie, as Mr Thyne outlined the case against him.

He was flanked by a number of adults, including an intermediary.

Mr Thyne told the jury about an incident five days before the stabbing, when two members of staff physically intervened in a dispute between two other students.

The prosecutor said the defendant tried to get involved and “had to be physically restrained and removed by staff”.

He told the jury that the school went into lockdown after the defendant said he had seen one of the two boys with a knife, but the police who attended did not find a weapon.

The prosecutor said the defendant did not go to school the following two days and a relative contacted the school to say he was “scared of going to school because of the lockdown”.

He said that Harvey, who was not at school when this incident happened, sent a text message to his dad saying “am not going in that school while people have knives”.

Mr Thyne said this incident led to Harvey and the defendant falling out in a Snapchat group, with each siding with one of the boys involved in the initial dispute, who had been suspended.

He said that in one message on February 1, Harvey sent the defendant his address, telling him that if he had a problem “you got my Addy I’ll deal with it simple”.