Boy, 15, to be sentenced for stabbing classmate to death during lunch break

A 15-year-old boy who stabbed a fellow pupil to death during a school lunch break is due to be sentenced. Harvey Willgoose, 15, was stabbed in the heart in front of horrified children by another student who had taken a hunting knife to school. Sheffield Crown Court heard how other pupils fled "in fear and panic", some locking themselves in a school cupboard, after the fatal attack at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on February 3.

The defendant was found guilty of murder in August and will be sentenced on Wednesday by a judge, Mrs Justice Ellenbogen, who will also decide whether to lift his anonymity. The jury in the boy's trial was shown CCTV footage of the incident which showed how Harvey was stabbed twice. One of these blows cut through one of his ribs and pierced his heart.

Jurors heard how immediately after the stabbing the defendant told All Saints' headteacher Sean Pender: "I'm not right in the head. My mum doesn't look after me right."

The school's assistant head, Morgan Davis, took the knife off the defendant and heard him say "you know I can't control it", which the teacher took to be a reference to his anger issues, given previous incidents of violent behaviour at school.

The jury was told how Harvey and the defendant fell out following an incident in the school five days before the fatal stabbing, on January 29.

On that day, the defendant tried to intervene in an altercation involving two other boys and had to be restrained by a teacher.

When he claimed one of these boys had a knife, a lockdown was declared and police were called, although no weapon was found.

Harvey was not at school that day and stayed off for the rest of the week, texting his dad: "Am not going in that school while people have knives."

Over the weekend before the stabbing on Monday morning, Harvey and the defendant fell out on social media, with each siding with a different boy involved in the lockdown incident.

When the defendant returned to school on Monday February 3, he was asked by Mr Davis whether he had anything he should not and said he did not.

The jury has heard about a series of encounters between Harvey and the defendant that morning before the defendant pulled out the knife and used it just after the start of the lunch break, which began at 12.10pm.

The court was shown images and video found on the defendant's phone which captured him posing with knives and other weapons, and was told how he had used search terms relating to weapons on the internet.

The boy told the court how he decided to carry a knife for protection as he feared other teenagers whom he believed were carrying weapons.

His barrister Gul Nawaz Hussain KC told the jury that the defendant "snapped" after years of bullying and "an intense period of fear at school".

Since Harvey's death, his family have campaigned against knife crime, with a particular focus on getting knife-arches into schools.

After the defendant was convicted, Harvey's sister Sophie Willgoose said outside court: "Harvey was full of life, warm, funny and caring with a unique ability to bring people together.

"He was deeply loved by his family, cherished by his friends, and respected by all who knew him."

She went on to say: "This tragedy has not only devastated our family, but has rippled across the country. People everywhere continue to grieve the loss of our beautiful boy."