Bailey Gwynne death: 'Shock' that knife was taken into stabbing school

The head boy at the school where Bailey Gwynne was stabbed to death by a fellow pupil has spoken of the disbelief that a knife had been taken in.

Bailey, 16, died after being stabbed at Cults Academy last year. His killer was jailed for nine years after being found guilty of culpable homicide.

Head boy Luke Morrice said he was not aware of knives being taken into school.

He said there was initial confusion which was then followed by shock.

• When an ordinary day turned to horror

Luke told BBC Scotland of the day Bailey was stabbed.

"I remember a lot of confusion. I was in an English class which was up looking over the car park.

"After the incident there were a lot of rumours going about as you can imagine, but nobody could have predicted a stab wound."

Bailey Gwynne suffered a stab wound to the heart

He explained: "I remember someone saying if it was a bleeding nose, that's just the level we thought it would have been.

"No-one could have imagined.

"Then of course we heard the sirens and the 10 police cars turning up.

"When all that was happening no-one knew what had actually happened. It was just a lot of confusion."

Asked if he was aware of knives being taken into school, he said: "No, I had never heard of it.

"So, obviously, when we were told it happened it was such a shock.

"When we were in the English class and we heard about it and we found out it was a stab wound someone I think suggested a member of the public had come into the school because no-one could have imagined that a knife had been brought into school and used in such a manner.

"It was all these kind of explanations that nobody could have thought it would have been in school, other explanations that unfortunately were not true."

Cults Academy head teacher Anna Muirhead said Bailey Gwynne's killer had been reminded about the dangers of weapons when he was in second year.

She told BBC Scotland: "As is normal school procedure myself and another member of the senior management team met with him.

"He emptied all his possessions and his bags, we had a discussion with him and he was well aware of the consequences, he was well aware of the school rule and indeed the legal situation about carrying weapons, and didn't give us any reason to think that he didn't understand that.

"We didn't involve the police with that incident because there wasn't an incident, there was nothing there to inform them about,

"He had not given us any concern and we did not take anything off him.

"That was several years ago and since then we had seen that boy grow into what we thought was a mature young man and we were delighted that he was staying on and had come back for a fifth year."