An emotional teacher told a jury how the teenager accused of murdering Harvey Willgoose once had an ‘axe’ in his gym bag, and that his mum came to the school with a picture of it
A teacher has told a jury how schoolboy Harvey Willgoose told her ‘as if anybody’s going to stab me’ hours before he was knifed to death at school.
The 15-year-old was allegedly stabbed with “severe force” on his lunch break with a 13cm hunting knife. The fatal wound pierced his heart.
Assistant head of Year 10, Claire Staniforth, said Harvey came to see her that day and started talking about a lockdown incident in the school five days before.
She told Sheffield crown court: “He said he wasn’t going to be coming into school because he’d heard there had been a knife.” The teacher told him she would not be in school if that was true.
The trial has heard the school was put in lockdown in an incident and there had been rumours on social media of a knife being involved on January 29, but the court has heard no weapon was found by police.
Ms Staniforth said: “He said something about being stabbed and put his hands up and said ‘as if anyone’s going to stab me’.” She then broke down as she told the jury about her chat with Harvey, just before he died at lunch time. She’d told him he could have dinner with her but, she told the court: “He never arrived.”
It is claimed the deadly attack happened following a Snapchat row with a fellow pupil. Another boy, 15, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is on trial accused of Harvey’s murder which he denies. He has admitted manslaughter and possession of a knife.
A jury has been shown graphic CCTV of the alleged murder on Monday, February 3 at All Saints Catholic High School. The stabbing took place in the courtyard at lunch time, which left pupils fleeing in “fear and panic”.
The teacher, Ms Staniforth, who was one of the deputy safe guarding officers at the school and has worked there for nine years, was clearly emotional as she gave evidence on Thursday morning. She told how weeks before the alleged murder the defendant’s mum had alerted them about something she’d found in her son’s bag.
She recalled how the school received a phone call from his mum in December 2024, on the last day of term before Christmas. She came in with a picture of what she said was a ‘knife’. But when they saw the photograph, it was an ‘axe’, she said.
“The school had received a call from (the defendant’s mum) saying she had found a knife in his gym bag at home. She wanted to come into school to discuss what she had found… she met with myself and [another teacher],” she said. Breaking down in tears, she added his mum had a picture: “It was an axe, it had rope around the handle. A photograph was taken and sent to South Yorkshire Police.”
Previously the trial was told a police officer went round to the defendant’s house to speak to him about the axe and advised him about the dangers. “Tragically (the defendant) chose not to heed that advice,” Richard Thyne KC, prosecuting, told the jury when he opened the case.
During evidence on Thursday, the teacher said the defendant once arrived at her office “shaking with anger” and “rubbing his hands” after being told off for having a mobile phone in class. Ms Staniforth said the defendant had “ended up punching the computer screen,” leaving his classroom and coming to her office. The court heard the defendant had told her he had not been on his phone.
They then, she said, had a chat about why he’d changed schools and he asked her “didn’t she know” he had actually beaten somebody up and blinded them. The court was told he had not actually blinded someone. “I was shocked but I didn’t want to show panic and worry because he was still trying to calm down from coming from the lesson where he’d been accused of being on the mobile phone,” the teacher said.
Continuing her evidence, the teacher said she’d been told the defendant’s aunt phoned the school on the Friday before the stabbing to say he wasn’t coming in because he was “too scared”.
Talking about her relationship with Harvey, she said: “Mine and Harvey’s relationship was funny, we had a good laugh together about things. When he did attend school he would come and see me, make sure I was okay, I would make sure he was okay.
“He made me laugh, we’d make each other laugh, a bit cheeky sometimes but he’d never overstep the boundaries with me.” She said he was behind in his lessons, adding: “Harvey didn’t attend school very often… he’d sometimes get a bit upset. He didn’t know what was happening in the lessons and he would come to me at that point.”
She spoke to Harvey on the phone just minutes before he died at lunch. He spoke to her from the isolation room, where he’d gone because he didn’t want to go back to a lesson because of the defendant, who he said had rubbed his fists on his chest.
The teacher said: “He said ‘Hi Bestie’. He was quickly told by [another teacher]; ‘You mean Mrs Staniforth!’ He said he’d been talking to a girl in there, she was from another school and he laughed and said ‘don’t tell her anything about me’.
“He was laughing. I said I was going to get some dinner and asked if he was going to get any dinner and he said ‘no’.”
Still crying, she added: “I said if he wanted to come up to the office and spend his dinner with me, he could. He never arrived.”
Ms Staniforth told the court how she had grabbed something to eat from the dining hall and had gone back to her office when she was told that Harvey had been stabbed.
She said she sprinted to where it had happened and was clearly emotional in the witness box as she added: “I told him I was there.”
The trial continues
