School murder accused 'does not remember' stabbing

Harvey Willgoose was stabbed to death at his school in Sheffield in February

A 15-year-old school boy accused of murdering a fellow pupil has said he does not remember the fatal stabbing.

The teenager is on trial at Sheffield Crown Court for the murder of Harvey Willgoose, also 15, at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield in February.

Giving evidence the defendant, who cannot be named due to his age, denied he had worked himself "up into a rage", saying his memory of what happened stopped "just before I stabbed him".

The court has heard the boy admits manslaughter and possession of a knife on school premises but denies murder.

On Thursday, prosecutor Richard Thyne KC, took the boy through CCTV footage of the moment he stabbed Harvey twice in the chest, sometimes playing it in slow motion.

He asked him: "Are you saying that you don't remember any of that?"

The boy, who was giving evidence for a sixth day in his trial, said: "Yes."

Mr Thyne said: "The prosecution case is that you had not lost control of your actions."

The defendant replied: "Well, I did lose control."

The prosecutor then asked him if he had "worked yourself up into a rage about Harvey".

The boy said: "I didn't get myself worked up over Harvey."

Flowers were left outside All Saints Catholic High School following Harvey's death

Mr Thyne said: "The prosecution case is what you can see there is controlled aggression by you. What do you say about that?

The defendant replied: "There wasn't control."

The prosecutor said: "When you stabbed Harvey in the chest, in that moment you intended either to kill him or cause him really serious harm. What do you say about that?"

The boy told the jury: "No, I didn't."

Mr Thyne said: "Having seen now what you did, what kind of harm do you think you intended?"

He replied: "I didn't intend no harm to him."

Mr Thyne said: "Are you saying that you can't remember the stabbing as you don't want to tell the jury the real answer?"

The boy said: "No."

Earlier in the trial, All Saints' headteacher Sean Pender described how the defendant said "I'm not right in the head" shortly after the stabbing.

While being questioned on Thursday, the boy told the jury that this was not right and he had said "my head's not right" to Mr Pender.

Mr Thyne said: "Are you trying to twist things now?" and the boy said: "No."

The prosecutor pointed out that, according to Mr Pender, the defendant told the head that he had stabbed Harvey twice but now he could not remember.

The boy said: "It was in the moment and it was, like, three minutes after I stabbed him."

When Mr Thyne put to him that "you intended to cause him really serious harm", the defendant said: "I didn't intend nothing."

He said: "I didn't deliberately stab him."

At the beginning of the trial, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, defending, said: "[The defendant] did not set out to kill or seriously hurt anyone.

"The defence say [his] 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."

The trial continues.

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