'Boy developed "unhealthy interest" in weapons & was found with axe prior to fatal school stabbing', jury told

Harvey Willgoose was stabbed in the heart with a hunting knife, causing fatal injuries, in an incident carried out at a courtyard at All Saints School in Sheffield, during the lunchtime break on February 3, 2025.

15-year-old Harvey collapsed around a minute after being stabbed, and died a short time later.

A teenage boy - who cannot be named - has admitted carrying out the stabbing, and to Harvey’s manslaughter. The boy denies murdering Harvey, however.

His murder trial began at Sheffield Crown Court earlier today (Tuesday, July 1, 2025).

The jury were read a prepared statement from the boy, which was provided to police via his solicitor, concerning the circumstances of Harvey’s death.

It states: “Harvey came up to me. He said: ‘Do you want beef, I’ll have you this time’.

“I tried to shake his hand. He refused to shake it. At that point I felt like he was going to attack me.

“Obviously, all these threats had been made to me previously and at that moment I thought he was going to use a weapon or knife against me.

“Without thinking and instinctively I pulled out the knife I had in my pocket and thrust it towards Harvey. I did this in self-defence. It was not my intention to cause him serious harm.

“At that moment I felt it was me or him, I had to protect myself.”

Murder accused had “unhealthy and apparently longstanding interest in weapons”

Outlining the Crown’s case against the boy, prosecutor Richard Thyne KC told jurors that in direct contrast to the boy’s claims that he only took a knife to school to protect himself after being subjected to threats, the police investigation has revealed him to have “an unhealthy and apparently longstanding interest in weapons.”

Mr Thyne continued: “An examination of the [defendant’s] mobile phone showed that the knife he used to stab Harvey was not the first – or only – knife that he had possessed.

“The phone contained photographs of him posing with a variety of different weapons including other hunting style knives, a machete, a hammer and a baseball bat.

“And one photograph of a machete dated back as long ago as April 2024.”

Examination of the teen’s internet history revealed he carried out searches for terms including: “zombie killer knife; dagger; pocket knife and machete.”

Mr Thyne said searches for such terms were carried out as far back as September 2024.

Around three months later, in December 2024, the boy’s mother contacted the school - who subsequently passed the information on to police - after she found what she described as a sword in his bag.

“It was clarified that the weapon was, in fact, an axe, which his mother had confiscated and locked away. She handed it over to the police,” said Mr Thyne.

During the same police visit, the officer spoke to the boy and reassured him that he was not being arrested and the purpose of him being there was to check on his welfare, the jury was told.

Mr Thyne said the boy “maintained that he knew nothing about the axe, and he did not know how it had got into his bag.”

The officer did not believe the boy was being truthful and pressed him about it, but after the boy “maintained his account” he concluded the interaction by giving him advice about the dangers of carrying weapons.

Jury told boy accused of murder has “significant history of becoming angry and using violence at school”

Mr Thyne said the Crown assert the boy has a “significant history of becoming angry and using violence at school”.

He claimed that records had revealed him to have a “pattern of behaviour ranging from defiance, through to the use of physical violence towards other pupils and property.”

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“The act of stabbing Harvey was murder and nothing less”

Mr Thyne said prosecutors anticipate the boy’s defence case will be that he suffered a “legal loss of self control,” which, he said, has a very “particular” meaning in the law - and is “not the same as having a loss of temper, or acting in a flash of anger.”

“The prosecution say you can be quite sure that the defendant did not lose self-control. There are a whole number of reasons which we say suggest quite the opposite of him losing control,” continued Mr Thyne.

He said those reasons include: the boy’s “deliberate” decision to take a concealed hunting knife with him onto school premises; his refusal to hand over the knife at the request of a friend a short time before Harvey was stabbed, and the CCTV of the stabbing itself, which has been shown to the jury.

“A stab wound delivered to the centre of the chest, followed by another, then purposefully advancing on Harvey, before taking the opportunity to back away, and then advancing again.

“Not, the prosecution say, the actions of someone who lost the ability to control himself. Quite the opposite, in fact,” said Mr Thyne.

He continued: “ And so, the prosecution says that any suggestion that this killing was the result of a loss of self-control - as defined by the law - is really just an attempt to avoid the defendant having to accept full responsibility for his actions.

“And you can be sure that the act of stabbing Harvey was murder and nothing less.”

Boy “lost control” following long period of “bullying, poor treatment and violence”

Following the opening of the prosecution case against the boy, his barrister, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC set out the case’s key issues “from the defence perspective.”

He argued the boy’s actions were “as a result of a long period of bullying, poor treatment and violence.”

“Things built, one upon another, until he lost control, and did - tragically - what we have all seen,” said Mr Hussain.

He continued: “The death of Harvey was a wholly unnecessary death, a tragedy.

“The defendant accepts what he did that day. He accepts responsibility for that tragedy and for causing the consequences of his actions. That’s why he’s pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

“The defendant did not set out to kill or seriously hurt anyone.”

The trial continues

In addition to the charge of manslaughter, the boy has also pleaded guilty to an offence of possessing a bladed article on a school premises.

He denies murder.

The trial, which is expected to last for around four weeks, continues.