BREAKING: Harvey Willgoose killer guilty of murdering fellow pupil in school stabbing

A schoolboy who stabbed a fellow pupil to death on their lunch break has beeen found guilty of murder.

The 15-year-old was on trial accused of murdering Harvey Willgoose, also 15, at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on February 3. The defendant, who cannot be named, had already admitted manslaughter but denied murder, saying he lost control and did not remember stabbing Harvey twice.

Harvey was in the school courtyard chatting during their school lunch break when he was stabbed with such force the 13cm hunting knife cut through five ribs and fatally pierced his heart. His killer was left "dancing" and "bouncing on his toes" before dropping the knife in a teacher's hand.

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After the deadly attack the killer told his teachers: "I'm not right in the head. My mum doesn't look after me right. I've stabbed him."

The trial heard the two boys fell out and had "beef" on Snapchat several days before Harvey’s death after taking opposite sides in a dispute between two other boys. The school had been put in lockdown and police were called over claims someone had a weapon but nothing was found. That day Harvey had not been in school and messaged his dad to say: "This is why I don't go to school dad, people have knives'.

The court heard the defendant was someone with an “unhealthy interest in weapons” who had talked about “shanking” someone when he was 13 years old. He had previously posed for a pic with a knife on school grounds and had an axe on another occasion.

The jury heard he told another pupil he had “loads of knives,” which he denied. But he did admit having bought knives online using his parents’ credit card, including an Assassin’s Creed knife and the "scary" hunting knife that killed Harvey. He claimed he'd bought the axe from an older pupil at school.

The defendant put videos on social media with weapons, which he admitted posting because he “wanted some people to know he carried a knife” and “wasn’t someone to be messed with”.

Prosecutor Richard Thyne KC told jurors at Sheffield Crown Court the attack on Harvey was "purposeful aggression" and an "act of retribution" after the boys had taken opposite sides in the dispute involving two other pupils.

He told the court the defendant had also researched rage rooms and, just over a week before the fatal stabbing, searched “waiting for someone to swing so I can let out my anger”.

Mr Thyne said this was echoed in the defendant’s behaviour on the day he stabbed Harvey, and showed CCTV clips from the school which he said showed him trying to provoke Harvey, who remained “peaceful”. The trial heard evidence from another pupil who said Harvey told him the defendant had been acting like he had a knife under his jumper that morning, but Harvey had thought he was bluffing.

Mr Thyne said: “It’s just a tragedy Harvey didn’t realise (the defendant) reaching for, or indicating he had, a knife in a science lesson, was genuine.”

He told the court that in footage of the fatal attack on Harvey, the defendant could be seen unzipping his coat, putting his hand in his pocket, and taking out the knife. “He was acting with thought, with purpose and knew exactly what he was doing,” he told jurors.

The prosecutor said the school’s headteacher told police that after the stabbing, the defendant said he knifed Harvey “once, maybe twice”. Mr Thyne said: “This proves the lie when he says he can’t remember. He knew then, just as he knows now, exactly what he’d done.”

The prosecutor added the defendant was “motivated by wanting to show he was hard, sending out a message about who he was, someone not to be messed with”.

Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, defending, said the defendant “snapped” after years of bullying and “an intense period of fear at school”. He told jurors: “Tragically, Harvey was a combination of being the final straw that broke (the defendant) and the unintended face of a series of threats of violence and bullying he had suffered in recent months.

“We say he suffered a loss of control which resulted in horrific and tragic consequences.” Mr Hussain said: “It is a frightening state of affairs that boys and young men think the way to stay safe is by carrying a knife. It’s like a nuclear arms race, and all that happens is the likelihood of them being used increases.

“The sad truth is boys involved in this case, at the very least, were keen to make people think they did carry knives, keen to make people think they were ready to use them, and keen to make people think they knew older and more violent boys who were ready to do the same.”

He told jurors if they cleared his client of murder “it doesn’t mean Harvey’s death is any less tragic or pointless”. Mr Hussain said: “A loved son has lost his life, a family have been deprived of him. A family mourns him. Another boy of a similar age had admitted his fault and, whatever happens, will pay the price for it.”

The barrister told the jury at Sheffield Crown Court his client had a “horrific home life” and suffered a “horrific background of bullying”.