A teenager accused of murdering a fellow pupil was sold an axe in school and posed with knives in pictures to warn others to ‘stay away’, a court has heard.
The 15-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, stabbed Harvey Willgoose, also 15, in the schoolyard at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on February 3.
He has pleaded guilty to Harvey’s manslaughter by reason of loss of control following a ‘long period of bullying’, but is facing trial at Sheffield Crown Court accused of murder.
Giving evidence for a second day, the boy described how he had bought an axe from another pupil on school premises after growing increasingly concerned for his safety.
The boy claimed he had received threats on social media from friends of a boy who had previously beaten him up so badly in school that he required hospital treatment.
He told jurors they had threatened to ‘stab you up’ and he was increasingly worried he would get ‘jumped’ after school and knifed.
He had initially wanted to buy a knife from the pupil in school, but, when he turned up to with an axe instead, still decided to buy it.
Asked by his barrister Gul Nawaz Hussain KC why he wanted to buy a knife in the first place, he said: ‘I knew they carried knives and if they pull a knife out on me, I could pull a knife out.
‘I know they carry it and they will use it.’
But his mother found the axe in his gym bag and reported it to the school, which led police to visit his home address to talk to him about the dangers of carrying weapons in December last year.
Police also found a tranche of pictures and videos showing the defendant posing with knives and the axe following his arrest over the fatal attack on Harvey.
Asked by his barrister Gul Nawaz Hussain KC why he had taken the photos, the boy said: ‘Other people had taken photos with knives and nothing was said to them, so I thought if I had one then people would say nothing to me.
‘Once people see the pictures they would be scared of that person.’
Mr Hussain asked: ‘Who did you want to be scared of you?’
‘People that caused problems with me,’ he replied.
The boy said he hoped the pictures would mean they wouldn’t ‘threaten me, they won’t try to cause problems’.
He added: ‘If they found the pictures, they are going to think “just stay away from him, don’t cause a problem with him”.’
The defendant previously told the jury he was so badly bullied he developed anger issues ‘I can’t control’.
He claimed that he was bullied over a medical issue at both primary school and secondary school, as well as suffering racist abuse.
The defendant told the court he would be beaten by his father occasionally and he did not tell the truth about where he got the axe from when police visited him in December because he was scared of repercussions at home.
The jury previously heard that Harvey and the accused became embroiled in a social media dispute on the weekend before the attack, relating to a row between pupils including the defendant on January 29.
On that occasion, he insisted he saw another boy in possession of a knife and the school was put into lockdown. The police were called but no blade was found.
The defendant was said to be ‘scared of going to school’ because of the lockdown. Harvey was not in school that day, but had expressed support on social media for a pupil with whom the defendant had a disagreement.
The trial was previously shown shocking CCTV of the fatal attack on Harvey, which saw the two boys squaring up over the school lunchbreak, before the defendant produced a knife and lunged at him, twice. Harvey collapsed 49 seconds later.
The defendant has admitted manslaughter and possession of a knife on school premises, but he denies murder.
Mr Hussain previously indicated to the jury that the defendant suffered a loss of control due to his history of being bullied, saying: ‘[The defendant] accepts what he did that day.
‘That is why he’s pleaded guilty to manslaughter. [He] 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.