Boy threatened to kill pupil before stabbing

A teenager accused of murdering a 15-year-old classmate had threatened to kill another pupil days before the fatal stabbing, a court has heard.

Teacher Claire Staniforth told jurors at Sheffield Crown Court the boy had confided in her that he had made the threat after he thought the other pupil was carrying a knife.

She told the court the teenager, who cannot be named due to his age, said he told her that he said to the other boy ‘what have you got in there, do you want me to come and take it off you and I’ll kill you with it?’.

The defendant is on trial accused of murdering 15-year-old Harvey Willgoose at All Saints Catholic High School, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, on February 3.

He has admitted manslaughter and bringing a knife onto school premises but denies murder.

Giving evidence, Ms Staniforth, who was the head of year 10 at the time, said the defendant had recounted the exchange with the other boy, referred to as Pupil A, to her on 29 January – five days before Harvey was fatally stabbed.

She told the court: “[The defendant] told me something had happened earlier with [Pupil A].

“Pupil A had his hands in his pockets and [the defendant] had looked at him and said, ‘what have you got in there? do you want me to come and take it off you and I’ll kill you?’.

The teenager did not answer her when she asked him if he had actually seen a knife, she said.

Ms Staniforth asked him to repeat his words to other staff later on, which he partly did, but did not repeat the threat to kill.

He told her, “I only said that to you”, the jury heard.

The court has previously heard that following the incident the defendant had insisted Pupil A had a knife in his pocket and the school was placed into lockdown but no weapon was found.

Ms Staniforth said there had been “no obvious tension” between the defendant and Harvey when she saw them in the corridor on the morning of 3 February.

She said: “Harvey asked if I was pleased to see him, and I said yes.

“He said he was going to be coming into school.

“[He said] he heard there had been a knife. I told him I wouldn’t have been in work if someone had a knife.

“He said something general about it, and put his hands up and said, ‘as if anyone’s going to stab me’.”

Later that morning, Harvey and the defendant were seen “squaring up to each other, posturing” in a lesson another teacher said.

“There was a little bit of physical contact, some words were exchanged,” she told jurors.

After the room settled, she said she had asked the defendant to take his coat off, but he would not.

She said she did not ask him again as he had settled in well and was doing some work.

She agreed he was “quiet, and looked sad”.

“I remember feeling sorry for him,” she added.

Meanwhile, Harvey had gone to the isolation room for a break and had spoken on a staff phone to Ms Staniforth.

She became emotional as she told the jury he said ‘hi bestie’ when she answered the phone.

“I said if he wanted to come up and spend his break with me he could,” she added.

“He never arrived.”

Less than 10 minutes after they spoke, she heard a student say Harvey had been stabbed.

She “sprinted” to the courtyard to do what she could to assist, the jury heard.

“I told him I was there,” she said.

She went on to tell the jury that in November, the teenage defendant had come to her office “shaking with anger” after being given a detention for using his phone in class.

Teacher Jenny Breislin said in a statement: “[The defendant] told me to shut up.

“He was very aggressive towards me and then punched the computer screen in front of him, breaking the screen.

“At the time I did feel threatened.”

After the incident he told Ms Staniforth he had “beaten someone up and blinded them” at a school he attended previously, she told the jury.

Richard Holland, defending, noted there was no record of the defendant doing this.

The following month, on the last day before the school broke for Christmas, the defendant’s mother met with two teachers regarding a weapon found in his bag.

Ms Staniforth became upset as she told the jury: “She had a picture of what she had said was a knife – it wasn’t a knife. It was like an axe, with rope around the handle.”

The incident was reported to South Yorkshire Police, she said.

The trial continues.