Harvey Willgoose's heartbroken mum speaks out for first time since murder trial
“I’m famous, me, you know, Mum.”
That’s the boast Harvey Willgoose was able to make, after becoming known amongst legions of football fans of all colours as he followed his beloved Sheffield United across the country.
The “kind” and “cheeky” 15-year-old was the sort of person who was able to make friends wherever he went, no matter their age, no matter which team they supported.
Harvey enjoyed the type of community-wide fame earned by those special people who love life, love fun and do what they can to bring people together. We all know someone like that- the type of person who brings a bit of joy and sunshine to every situation they’re in.
Tragically, Harvey’s death on February 3, 2025, led to him becoming famous for the wrong reasons, after the shocking details of how he came to lose his life reverberated in homes across the country.
The fact someone so young could be killed in a stabbing at school, a place where children are supposed to be safe and protected from dangers like knife crime, has left many of us shaken.
And now, as the boy who killed Harvey is convicted of his murder, Caroline Willgoose, Harvey’s mum, is able - for the first time - to speak freely.
The defendant is now set to be sentenced at a later date, when he will receive a mandatory life sentence. The minimum term will be decided during the hearing.
Here, Harvey’s mum tells The Star why she believes her son’s death could so easily have been prevented if All Saints School had acted on ‘red flags’; the gut-wrenching toll sitting through a five-week murder trial has taken on her family, why she believes all schools should install knife arches and what Harvey would want his legacy to be.
‘That’s the worst thing, that it could have been prevented’
“There were so many [red] flags. So many [red] flags. That's the harrowing thing. That's the worst thing, that it could have been so prevented,” said Caroline.
She spoke to The Star last week, ahead of verdicts being returned, sitting on a bench surrounded by colourful wildflowers, just yards away from Sheffield Crown Court where the teenage boy who killed her son was in the cells, waiting for the next part of his murder trial to take place.
Shortly after 9am on the day Harvey was killed, All Saints’ assistant headteacher Morgan Davis asked the defendant if he had ‘brought in anything with him,’ seemingly referring to the possession of weapons.
The defendant denied having anything on him, even as the 13cm hunting knife he used to kill Harvey was secreted under his school uniform. He was also noted to have kept his coat on throughout the morning, despite it being against school rules, and receiving requests from teachers to take it off.
The defendant’s answer was accepted, and no further action was taken. Harvey was stabbed just under three hours later, minutes after the lunchtime break began.
“If you've got the reason to ask that child, you've got a reason to search that child,” said Caroline.
She added: “Asking the child that did it in the morning have you got a weapon on you and and just to say ‘no.’”
During the trials, jurors heard how the defendant had what developed prosecutors described as an “unhealthy and apparently longstanding interest in weapons.”
That “interest” saw him buy both the knife he used to kill Harvey, which had a serrated-edged blade - along with a knife based on one featured in the video combat game, Assassin’s Creed - online using a parent’s bank card.
It saw him pose with a knife on school grounds in September 2024 - five months before Harvey’s death - in a picture shown to the jury, and buy an axe from a fellow pupil, also on school grounds, in December 2024.
And then there were the incidents of violence, which escalated during the defendant’s time at All Saints. In November 2024, he punched a computer monitor so hard it smashed after a teacher gave him a detention.
He used his fist again at school on January 16, 2025, when a fellow pupil, Boy A, called him a derogatory name and he punched a partition wall. Then on January 29, 2025 - just five days before Harvey’s death - the defendant ‘involved himself’ in a lockdown incident between Boy A and Boy B, and he had to be ‘physically restrained and removed’ by staff.
Commenting on the other ‘red flags’ exhibited by the defendant that she believes the All Saints should have picked up on, Caroline continued by saying the first lockdown incident should have been a ‘massive wake-up call’.
The court heard how the incident, involving a physical altercation between Boy A and Boy B, triggered a ‘lockdown’ at the school when the defendant claimed he saw Boy A with a knife. Both he and Boy A were searched whilst still on school premises, but neither of them were found to be in possession of any weapons.
Caroline has also revealed that the school has not contacted her, or anyone in the family, in the six months that have passed since Harvey’s tragic death.
She adds, however, that she ‘doesn’t want anything do with that school’.
And while justice has now been secured for Harvey with a murder conviction for the defendant, Caroline has detailed the heartbreaking toll the trial process has taken on her family.
The ‘mental torture’ of the trial process
She has described some aspects of the trial process as being like ‘mental torture’.
“It's been really shocking, terrible,” said Caroline and has said that for much of the five-week trial she could not face being in the public gallery - which is situated above the court - preferring instead to remain in the family room.
“I just can't stand listening to it and the CCTV what we've had well I ain't looked. But family’s had to look and [them] coming down they’re broken, who wants to see that?”
“It's just torture. It's mental torture. And for what?”
One day of the trial was particularly difficult for the family.
During it, CCTV of Harvey being fatally attacked was played repeatedly and in slow motion, as the defendant, under cross-examination, was taken through his actions step-by-step.
Caroline was not present, but seeing the heartbroken faces of her loved ones - including that of husband Mark - who were there, was devastating.
“They came down and their faces…I couldn't go on Friday [the following day] because it upset me all night seeing their faces and what they must have seen. Horrendous. It's just so sad. I feel, I just feel so sorry for him.”
For some of the time Caroline was able to bring herself to be present in court, she also had to face the defendant as he gave evidence.
“I went in the first day that he went in the dock and I don't think he expected to see me,” said Caroline, adding that she had to leave court when his evidence approached the circumstances around Harvey’s death.
When asked if she thinks the defendant understands the magnitude of the heartbreak he has caused, Caroline added: “I don't know. I see him looking at me. He looks at me. When I'm in there he does look at me all the time when I'm in.
“I hope that he does. But I don't know.”
‘Children knew there were knives in school and they were frightened’
As the family begin work to move on from the trial, Caroline is committed to campaigning for knife arches to be installed in all schools from September 1, 2025.
She is calling on people to support an online petition which now has in excess of 50,000 signatures, but needs to hit 100,000 in order for the matter to be formally debated by MPs in Parliament.
“We need to change things. I know it goes deeper than knife arches, but get knife arches in and then get us into schools educating kids of the devastation on both sides…where there are no winners. There are no winners here,” said Caroline, adding that she hopes there will be ‘more out there’ now the trial has concluded.
When asked if she hopes those who have been reading the trial coverage will support her campaign, Caroline added: “I hope that it spreads more awareness and sign up and the one place that children should be safe is in schools.”
“This can't happen again, and we know after all this that there are knives in schools…children knew that and they were frightened.”
Heartbreakingly, less than a week before he died, Harvey told his parents: "This is why I don't go to school because children have knives in schools."
The court heard Harvey’s attendance at school had become increasingly poor in the months leading up to his death.
Reflecting on what she would like Harvey’s legacy to be, Caroline continued: “I hate that saying this Harvey Willgoose the pupil that was stabbed to death at school. He’d hate that.
“I want him to be remembered as the fun-loving kid, cheeky chappy, sociable kid that he was.”
‘I’m famous, me, you know, Mum’
And while Harvey’s impact on so many across Sheffield has been laid bare, through the turnout at both his funeral and his memorial march, Caroline said her son’s influence extends much further than that.
“It's not just Sheffield. There were some lads in Birmingham that he met at an away game that came to his funeral. They came to lay some flowers. “They did a march for him in Birmingham.
“In Nottingham when we went to lay some flowers, there were some kids crying and I said: ‘Oh, did you know him’ and they said ‘We met him, we're from Nottingham’. And then they came to funeral. All over people knew him all over and I didn't know.
“Harvey would tell me: ‘I'm famous, me, you know, Mum’ - and he was.”
Steve Davies, CEO of St Clare Catholic Multi Academy Trust, said: “We think especially of Harvey's family, loved ones and friends today. We cannot begin to imagine the immeasurable impact the loss of Harvey has had on them.
“Harvey was a much-loved, positive and outgoing pupil whose memory will be cherished by all who knew him. As a community we have been devastated by his death and we continue to think of him every day.
“Harvey’s death was an unimaginable tragedy for all, and one that understandably gives rise to a number of questions from his family and others.
“Now that the trial has finished, a number of investigations aimed at addressing and answering these questions will be able to proceed. We will engage fully and openly with them to help ensure every angle is considered and no key questions are left unresolved.”