Latest news with #ClaireStaniforth
BBC News
03-07-2025
- BBC News
Harvey Willgoose: Boy threatened to kill pupil before stabbing
A teenager accused of murdering a 15-year-old classmate had threatened to kill another pupil days before the fatal stabbing, a court has Claire Staniforth told jurors at Sheffield Crown Court the boy had confided in her that he had made the threat after he thought the other pupil was carrying a told the court the teenager, who cannot be named due to his age, said he told her that he said to the other boy 'what have you got in there, do you want me to come and take it off you and I'll kill you with it?'.The defendant is on trial accused of murdering 15-year-old Harvey Willgoose at All Saints Catholic High School, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, on February 3. He has admitted manslaughter and bringing a knife onto school premises but denies evidence, Ms Staniforth, who was the head of year 10 at the time, said the defendant had recounted the exchanged with the other boy, referred to as Pupil A to her on 29 January - five days before Harvey was fatally told the court: "[The defendant] told me something had happened earlier with [Pupil A]."Pupil A had his hands in his pockets and [the defendant] had looked at him and said, 'what have you got in there? do you want me to come and take it off you and I'll kill you?'. The teenager did not answer her when she asked him if he had actually seen a knife, she Staniforth asked him to repeat his words to other staff later on, which he partly did, but did not repeat the threat to told her, "I only said that to you", the jury court has previously heard that following the incident the defendant had insisted Pupil A had a knife in his pocket and the school was placed into lockdown but no weapon was found. Ms Staniforth said there had been "no obvious tension" between the defendant and Harvey when she saw them in the corridor on the morning of 3 said: "Harvey asked if I was pleased to see him, and I said yes. "He said he was going to be coming into school."[He said] he heard there had been a knife. I told him I wouldn't have been in work if someone had a knife."He said something general about it, and put his hands up and said, 'as if anyone's going to stab me'." Later that morning, Harvey and the defendant were seen "squaring up to each other, posturing" in a lesson another teacher said."There was a little bit of physical contact, some words were exchanged," she told the room settled, she said she had asked the defendant to take his coat off, but he would said she did not ask him again as he had settled in well and was doing some agreed he was "quiet, and looked sad"."I remember feeling sorry for him," she Harvey had gone to the isolation room for a break and had spoken on a staff phone to Ms became emotional as she told the jury he said 'hi bestie' when she answered the phone."I said if he wanted to come up and spend his break with me he could," she added."He never arrived."Less than 10 minutes after they spoke, she heard a student say Harvey had been "sprinted" to the courtyard to do what she could to assist, the jury heard."I told him I was there," she said. She went on to tell the jury that in November, the teenage defendant had come to her office "shaking with anger" after being given a detention for using his phone in Jenny Breislin said in a statement: "[The defendant] told me to shut up."He was very aggressive towards me and then punched the computer screen in front of him, breaking the screen."At the time I did feel threatened."After the incident he told Ms Staniforth he had "beaten someone up and blinded them" at a school he attended previously, she told the Holland, defending, noted there was no record of the defendant doing following month, on the last day before the school broke for Christmas, the defendant's mother met with two teachers regarding a weapon found in his Staniforth became upset as she told the jury: "She had a picture of what she had said was a knife – it wasn't a knife. It was like an axe, with rope around the handle."The incident was reported to South Yorkshire Police, she trial continues. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
Telegraph
03-07-2025
- Telegraph
Boy, 15, told teacher ‘as if anybody's going to stab me' hours before death
A schoolboy told a teacher 'as if anybody's going to stab me' hours before he was knifed to death in his school. Claire Staniforth was 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, South Yorkshire, on Feb 3 2025. Ms Staniforth said Harvey came to see her that morning and was chatting about his grandparents going on holiday, before asking about a lockdown incident in the school five days before. She told Sheffield Crown Court on Thursday: 'He said he wasn't going to be coming into school because he'd heard there had been a knife.' The teacher explained that there had been rumours on social media of a knife being involved in an incident on Jan 29 but police had not found a weapon. Ms Staniforth said: 'My reply to Harvey was that I wouldn't have been at work if somebody had had a knife. 'He said something about being stabbed and put his hands up and said 'as if anyone's going to stab me'.' The teacher said Harvey later spoke to her on the phone from a room where he was working, just before lunch, calling her his 'bestie' and telling her he had been talking to a girl from another school. She said he was laughing as he said: 'Don't tell her anything about me.' Ms Staniforth said she told him he could come and have his lunch with her 'but he never arrived'. 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. 'I told him I was there,' she said. Ms Staniforth said had helped Harvey with attendance problems. 'When he did attend school he would come to see me and make sure I was OK, and I'd make sure he was OK,' she said. 'He made me laugh – a bit cheeky sometimes, but he would never overstep the boundaries.' The jury have seen CCTV footage of the moments when Harvey was stabbed. The defendant has admitted manslaughter but denies murder. He has also admitted possession of a knife on school premises. Five days before Harvey was stabbed, two members of staff physically intervened in a dispute between two other students. The defendant had to be restrained as he tried to get involved. He claimed that one boy had a knife and the school was put into lockdown, although the police never found a weapon. Ms Staniforth said she had spoken to the defendant just before it happened after she became suspicious of a group of students. She said the teenager told her there had been 'something in the library' and another student had called him 'a p---- and a bitch'. Ms Staniforth said the defendant told her that the other boy had his hands in his pockets and said to him: 'What have you got in there, do you want me to come and take it off you and I'll kill you with it?' Earlier this week, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, defending, said: '[The defendant] did not set out to kill or seriously hurt anyone. 'The defence say [the defendant's] actions that day were the end result of a long period of bullying, poor treatment and violence, things that built one upon another until he lost control and did tragically what we've all seen.'
Daily Mail
03-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Harvey Willgoose told teacher 'as if anyone's going to stab me' just an hour before fellow schoolboy, 15, knifed him to death, court told
A teenager told a teacher 'as if anyone's going to stab me' just minutes before he was knifed to death in a schoolyard attack, a court has heard. Harvey Willgoose, 15, suffered fatal injuries when another pupil stabbed him on their lunch break at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on February 3. The teenage attacker, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded guilty to Harvey's manslaughter by reason of loss of control, but is now on trial at Sheffield Crown Court accused of murder. He will argue that his actions were the 'end result of a long period of bullying'. A teacher at the school, Claire Staniforth, today told a jury of a conversation she had with Harvey on the day he was killed. The Sheffield United fan had not been regularly attending school at the time and popped into her office because he had heard the school was placed in lockdown over a knife scare a week earlier. Ms Staniforth said she had reassured him that, if a knife really had been found at the school, she would not have come into work. 'He put his hands up and said 'as if anyone's going to stab me',' she said. Within just a few hours, Harvey lay dying in the school courtyard with a catastrophic knife wound to the heart. The trial has previously heard how the school was placed into lockdown on January 29, the week before the fatal stabbing, after the defendant claimed another pupil had a knife. Ms Staniforth described coming across the defendant discussing something with other pupils and asked him to come back to her office because something 'didn't feel right to me'. He told her there had been an incident in the library with another pupil who insulted him - and he had noticed that he had his hands in pockets. '[The defendant] had looked at [the pupil] and said, 'What have you got there? Do you want me to come and take it off you and I'll kill you',' she said. The teacher said she took that to mean the defendant thought the other pupil had a knife concealed on him and he had therefore threatened to come over and stab him with his own blade. As they were talking, there was then a loud commotion outside her office and the defendant ran outside, where there was a confrontation between the same pupil and one of the defendant's friends. Jurors previously heard that both the defendant's friend and the other pupil were suspended over the scuffle and the school placed into lockdown due to reports that there was a knife. Police subsequently attended and found no knives on the pupil. The defendant claimed to be too scared to come into school for the next two days. Ms Staniforth also recalled an earlier conversation she had with the defendant where she asked him in passing why he had left his previous school. He replied it was because 'he had actually beaten somebody up and blinded them'. This turned out not to be true, but the teacher said it had 'shocked' her. In another incident in December 2024, the defendant's mother contacted the school to say she had found a knife in his gym bag at home. She came into school to meet Ms Staniforth and another teacher, where she showed them a picture of what turned out to be an axe rather than a knife. They passed the information to South Yorkshire Police. The trial was previously shown shocking CCTV of the fatal attack on Harvey, which saw the two boys squaring up, before the defendant produced a knife and lunged at him, twice. Harvey quickly backed away and collapsed just 49 seconds later, the court previously heard. He died from a stab wound to the heart. The trial continues.
