Teacher “sprinted” to fatal school stabbing

A teacher has described the moment he sprinted to the scene of a fatal school stabbing after hearing “knife, knife,” on the staff radio system.

Thomas D’Angeli recounted his actions while giving evidence at the trial of a 15-year-old boy accused of murdering Harvey Willgoose, also 15, at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on 3 February.

Mr D’Angeli appeared emotional as he told jurors how he had tried to help Harvey after the attack, and said that the defendant was often “hot-headed” around other students.

The 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named due to his age, has admitted a charge of manslaughter and bringing a blade onto school premises but denies murder.

The teacher, who works in pastoral and wellbeing support, said he had known Harvey well because of issues around his attendance.

He said on the morning of the fatal attack, Harvey had visited him to let him know he was going to be coming into school more.

He told jurors that later that day while he was in the school hall he heard the words “knife, knife” on his radio and then “sprinted”, passing children who were “screaming and running away”.

He said he then came across assistant headteacher Morgan Davis with the defendant and overheard the boy saying ‘I told you, I knew it, I lost it’.

“It was clear he was angry, upset, aggressive, but he was complying,” Mr D’Angeli added.

Moments later, he said he had found Harvey collapsed and dialled 999.

The court heard the force of the stabbing had been enough to sever one of Harvey’s ribs and mark another.

Forensic pathologist Dr Philip Lumb told the jury: “Bone is a very hard substance, it is difficult to cut…that is a marker of the use of severe force.”

Harvey received CPR and underwent emergency surgery at the scene to try and save his life, but was pronounced dead within an hour.

Mr Mr D’Angeli said that on 16 January, two weeks prior to the attack, he had attended the school’s isolation room to find the defendant “heated and agitated”.

He said he heard the defendant say, “I’m going to bang him out, I’m going to knock him out” in reference to another student, Pupil A.

The teenager accused Pupil A of using a racial slur towards him and punched a wall, Mr D’Angeli said, which caused “significant damage”.

“A reasonable amount of force was needed to stop him continuing to punch the wall,” the teacher added.

He told the jury the accused had calmed down after Pupil A left the room.

The prosecution said on Tuesday that Harvey “sided with” Pupil A in an ongoing disagreement with another boy, who was a friend of the defendant.

Speaking about another event in the lead-up to the fatal attack, on 29 January Mr D’Angeli said he had heard “commotion” on his radio.

He said: “I heard [the defendant] screaming, ‘[Pupil A] thinks he’s hard’ and ‘I’ll bang him out’.”

He told the jury it took “a lot” of force for him to remove the defendant from the scene.

The defendant had insisted Pupil A had a knife in his pocket, Mr D’Angeli said, and “remained constant” in this claim both in the heat of the moment and when he calmed down.

He said he believed the boy was genuinely concerned about the knife, and agreed he had “no reason to disbelieve him”.

When Mr D’Angeli returned to the scene, the teacher found a friend of the defendant, Pupil B, showing aggression towards Pupil A and also asserting he had a knife.

Pupil B had said, ‘[pupil A] thinks I won’t do him, he thinks he’s hard, he has a knife’, Mr D’Angeli told the jury.

The school lockdown alarm sounded and police carried out searches, but they did not find any weapons.

Mr D’Angeli knew both the defendant and Harvey well, he said.

On the morning of the stabbing, the accused had also visited Mr D’Angeli, and asked if Pupil A had come in that day.

Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, defending, asked whether “taking initiative” to avoid another argument was “sensible and proactive”, and Mr D’Angeli agreed.

The teacher added the boy had been “calm and collected” in their meeting and had not mentioned Harvey, or any other concerns, apart from Pupil A.

He told the jury the boy was “respectful, calm and would comply” in their interactions, but was “hot-headed [and] easily agitated at times in school”.

“Previous to these incidences, I wouldn’t have described him as an angry child,” he said.

The trial continues.