Video footage of 'die die die' attack teacher released

In the dramatic video taken from a camera outside the classroom of science teacher Peter Harvey, the boy's classmates crowd round the store room as he is beaten about the head with the 3kg weight.

The 50-year-old teacher then throws the dumbbell at a boy who tries to intervene before emerging from the store room like a man "possessed".

In the video shown to jurors during Harvey's four-day trial at Nottingham Crown Court, all he was heard to say during the brutal attack was "die, die, die".

The film, seized from All Saints' Roman Catholic School in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, by detectives following the attack on July 8 of last year, then shows Harvey storm back into his classroom.

He is pursued by the school's education adviser, Shahrukh Mugaseth, while students rush to the aid of the 14-year-old boy as he lies injured in the store room.

On Thursday, Harvey was cleared of attempting to murder the boy or seriously injure him.

The court heard the boy, a known trouble-maker, had told the teacher to "f*** off" when he tried to stop him messing about in class.

The jury accepted his lawyer's claim he was in such a state at the class's unruly behaviour, filmed by one girl on her camcorder, he could not have intended to harm the boy.

Harvey earlier admitted causing grievous bodily harm to the boy but said he did not intend to cause him any harm.

The married father-of-two, described as a "fundamentally decent man" in court, will be sentenced on May 21.

Judge Michael Stokes QC said the jury's verdict meant "common sense had prevailed" and he would not be sending the teacher to prison as he had already been locked up for eight months awaiting trial.

The footage was released by the Crown Prosecution Service yesterday following requests from the media.

But the CPS did not release video shot on a hand-held camcorder smuggled into the class by a girl. She encouraged her classmates to incite a reaction from Harvey and then planned to show the film around the school to "humiliate" the teacher.

One girl stormed out, calling him a "bald-headed bastard" while others openly branded him a "psycho".

In one exchange, a girl walked up to Harvey and told the teacher she thought he was having a mental breakdown during the lesson, which had descended into "uproar".

Harvey finally snapped when he tried to wrestle a Bunsen burner stand from his victim, who then told him to "f*** off".

The boy, described as a "leading light" when it came to causing trouble, was earlier sword-fighting with a wooden metre rule and playing volleyball with scrunched-up bits of paper.