A pathologist has told a murder trial that Harvey Willgoose was stabbed with severe force when he was struck at school in Sheffield back in February
The fatal blow which killed a teenage school boy was stuck with ‘severe force’, a murder trial has heard.
Jurors hearing how 15-year-old Harvey Willgoose died while at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on February 3, were told his medical cause of death was a stab wound to the chest. A teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is on trial at Sheffield Crown Court accused of his murder.
Pathologist, Dr Philip Lumb, said “severe force” was used in the knife wound that killed the teen. He said it was a knife wound below the victim’s left nipple, which went through the rib and continued through into the chest cavity and then into the ‘bag’ containing the heart.
He told the jury: “It penetrated into the heart, it penetrated the full thickness of one of the main pumping chambers called the right ventricle. There is a 3cm cut into the main pumping chamber of the heart.”
He estimated the knife wound went 8cm from the skin surface into the body.
Asked on a scale of moderate and severe force, which pathologists use, what would he say of the force used.
“In this case we have the full thickness of one of the ribs, the bone of the rib being cut through. Bones are a very hard substance, very difficult to cut even when using a very sharp knife and that is a marker of the use of severe force,” he said.
He pointed out the 8cm depth of the wound showed the knife had been “almost been inserted to its full length” of 10cm.
The juror was previously shown the moment the stabbing took place as other youngsters could be seen fleeing in panic. Richard Thyne KC, prosecuting, told the court how the altercation happened in a school courtyard just as the lunch break was starting.
As he began playing the footage he told jurors: “It is shocking, but it is necessary to play it.”
Mr Thyne said the CCTV shows Harvey appearing to put his left hand on the defendant’s right arm before the defendant “takes a knife out of his left pocket, passes it across into his right hand, and then stabs twice at Harvey’s torso”.
He said the defendant then advances towards Harvey, who backs away across the courtyard, before “(the defendant) returns towards where the incident began, gesturing towards Harvey with his knife, and appearing to shout at Harvey”.
The video shows Harvey running towards the defendant, who then advances for a second time, “bouncing on his toes, still brandishing the knife”, the prosecutor said, adding that then “Harvey backs away”.
Mr Thyne said “other pupils fled in fear and panic” as the defendant went into the dining hall still holding the knife.
Staff members Carolyn Siddall and Rachel Hobkirk approached the boy as he “was dancing around on his toes and waving the knife around, although by this stage he seemed to be saying ‘I’m not going to hurt anyone’”, the prosecutor said.
He added: “They told him to put the knife down but he did not do so.” He told the jury assistant head teacher Morgan Davis arrived and “found the defendant still waving the knife around”.
As Mr Davis told him to hand over the knife, the defendant was saying to him: “You know I can’t control it,” which Mr Thyne said the teacher took to be a reference to his anger issues, given previous incidents of violent behaviour at school.
The prosecutor said: “Mr Davis held his hand out and took the knife from (the defendant). At the same time the headteacher, Mr Pender, placed his arm around (the defendant)’s shoulder and took him along the corridor to his office.”
The boy, who like Harvey, was 15 at the time, told the headteacher “I’m not right in the head” after the fatal stabbing, the court was told.
Earlier, Mr Thyne told the jury Harvey was stabbed in the heart with a hunting knife which had a 13cm, serrated-edged blade.
He told jurors the defendant “admits that he stabbed Harvey causing his death”. He said: “He also admits that the stabbing was not carried out in lawful self-defence.”
The jury has heard the defendant has admitted Harvey’s manslaughter, but denies murdering him. The boy, who cannot be named, has also admitted possession of a knife on school premises.