Teen sentenced after stabbing Tewkesbury schoolteacher

Police were called to the incident at the school in July

A 15-year-old boy has been sentenced to 14 months detention after stabbing a teacher in a school corridor.

Maths teacher Jamie Samson was taken to hospital with a single wound after being attacked at Tewkesbury Academy in Gloucestershire on 10 July.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted one count of unlawful and malicious wounding with intent to cause serious injury.

He was sentenced at Bristol Youth Court to youth detention for 14 months.

He had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing a bladed article following the attack.

The court was told the teenager put on a snood and a hooded top to cover his face, and had taken a six-inch knife from his home.

Tewkesbury Academy, and two neighbouring schools, went into lockdown "as a precaution" after the stabbing.

Speaking about the attack and the four-hour lockdown at the academy, district judge Lynne Matthews said: "Isn't this what you seen on TV in America? Not Tewkesbury."

Pupils were locked down at the school for several hours while armed police combed the area

Before confronting Mr Sansom the teenager told a friend to "wait until period one" and minutes before the attack called emergency services to tell them a teacher at the school would be stabbed.

Supt Roddy Gosden said: "The police response on the day was very large, we had a number of firearms officers from our counter-terrorism team at the school.

"Because of the seriousness of the incident, we had to lock the school down for several hours, the safety of the teachers and pupils was the priority."

Imposing a 14-month detention and training order, District Judge Lynne Matthews told the defendant: "You were not acting impulsively.

"You took the face covering to school, you took the knife to school.

"You told a friend what was going to happen and you told the emergency services."

The judge said he would serve half the sentence in custody with the remainder at home working with the youth offending team.

The court was told how the boy left the school after the incident and sent a text message to his mum saying: "I'm sorry. Goodbye forever. But remember this, I will always love you guys."

Jamie Sansom has been working as a maths teacher at the school since 2017

Speaking to the teenager's mum in court, Judge Matthews said: "You must have been beside yourself?"

His mum, who has not been named for legal reasons, said: "I told him how it made us feel. We were sad that we didn't know why he was sad.

"He does not talk, he's not very good at expressing his feelings."

Mr Sansom, who is originally from Newport but lives in Gloucestershire, had been a maths teacher at the school since 2017.

'No ill will'

Mr Sansom stepped back when he was approached by the teen with the knife, reducing the injury to a single-stab wound.

He was discharged from hospital on the same day.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Sansom said he holds no ill will to the teenage boy.

"All of a sudden the knife appeared. I wondered if I was in a soap opera," said Mr Sansom.

"He needs to understand the seriousness of the crime. I wonder if schools are a safe place to work - the system is stretched."

Tewkesbury Academy is a co-educational state academy open to pupils aged 11 to 18

Defence solicitor James McKenna told the court how the teenager, who was from a loving and supportive family,had been suffering with poor mental health at the time.

"He had low mood and was on edge with suicidal ideation.

"Although he was a boy of few words, everyone considered him a polite young man which made the case so peculiar," he said.