Teacher cleared of murder attempt on pupil

The jury took less that two hours to find Peter Harvey not guilty following his trial for battering the 14-year-old boy with a 3kg weight during a lesson at All Saints Roman Catholic School in Mansfield last July.

The 50-year old father-of-two had earlier pleaded guilty to the charge of causing grievous bodily harm without intent.

The court heard that he shouted, "Die, die, die" as he bludgeoned the boy with the weight as the pupil swore at him after goading him throughout the lesson.

It can now be revealed that the trial judge Michael Stokes QC expressed concern about the prosecution of Harvey, whose legal team claimed was not in a fit state of mind to know what he was doing. Pupils who witnessed the attack supported this version of events.

It emerged during the four-day trial that pupils at the school were trying to "wind up" Harvey so his reaction could be caught on a camcorder being used secretly by a girl in the class.

One 14-year-old girl said she told the science teacher she thought he was having a mental breakdown shortly before the attack, while another boy, now 15, described Harvey as a man "possessed".

But despite the evidence, the Crown Prosecution Service decided to pursue a trial against Harvey costing tens of thousands of pounds.

In an exchange on Wednesday with Stuart Rafferty QC, prosecuting, which could not be reported at the time for legal reasons, Judge Stokes said: "Many will be surprised from the evidence we have heard that the Crown should still pursue this case against a man of previous good character."

He later said: "Given the considerable amount of evidence we have heard from witnesses, Mr Harvey was in such a state of mind that many might conclude that he was 'not really with it' to use the expression used by one witness.

"There is strong evidence to suggest that the way Mr Harvey was acting at the time, he did not appreciate what he was doing."

The court had heard how the boy at the centre of the case was a troublemaker with a poor disciplinary record, having been in trouble with teachers on nine different occasions in the year before the attack. The jury was told he was a "leading light" in class when it came to goading Harvey and that in the moments before Harvey snapped and attacked him, the boy and other pupils had been playing volleyball with balls of paper.

He then started sword-fighting with wooden metre rulers in a game of "high jinks" which was secretly filmed by a fellow pupil on a camcorder smuggled into the classroom so it could be shown around the school to "humiliate" Harvey.

The boy gave evidence during the trial via video-link from a room in the court building and denied being a troublemaker.

The judge said he would not send the teacher to jail for grievous bodily harm, which he had admitted. Harvey spent eight months on remand awaiting trial before being bailed earlier this month.

Harvey left by a side exit and will return to court to be sentenced for grievous bodily harm on May 21. He is likely to face a community order.