Teen Found Not Guilty of Trying to Murder Teacher After Classroom Stabbing

Teen Found Not Guilty of Trying to Murder Teacher After Classroom Stabbing https://ift.tt/YCkvrzI

The 16-year-old was convicted of wounding with intent after prosecutors said he stabbed history teacher Vicki Williams in the head at a Welsh school

Milford Haven comprehensive school in Pembrokeshire
Credit: google maps

NEED TO KNOW

• A 16-year-old student was found not guilty of attempted murder but convicted of wounding with intent and unlawful wounding after prosecutors said he stabbed history teacher Vicki Williams in the head at Milford Haven Comprehensive School
• Williams testified she feared she was going to die during the Feb. 5 attack, describing the look on the teen’s face as one of “pure hatred” and saying the assault “came out of nowhere”
• The teen, who cannot be identified because of his age, claimed the stabbing happened accidentally during a struggle over the knife and is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 3

A 16-year-old student has been found not guilty of attempting to murder his history teacher after prosecutors said he stabbed her in the head with a kitchen knife inside a classroom at a Welsh secondary school.

A jury at Swansea Crown Court instead found the teenager guilty of wounding with intent and unlawful wounding following the Feb. 5 attack on teacher Vicki Williams at Milford Haven Comprehensive School in Pembrokeshire. The teen, who cannot be identified because of his age, had previously pleaded guilty to possessing a kitchen knife on school grounds. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 3.

According to the BBC, the then-15-year-old followed Williams into her empty classroom after asking for help with his history work. Once inside, he shut the classroom door, pulled a knife from his bag and lunged at her.

Williams testified that she became suspicious after the student closed the door, telling her it was cold.

“I ask him again, ‘Are you sure you’re alright?’ And then he pulls [the knife] out of the bag and lunges at me,” she told the court, according to the BBC.

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According to the BBC, Williams suffered injuries to her head, back and hands after grabbing the knife, pushing the teenager away with her legs and screaming for help.

Williams told the court she believed she was going to die.

“I’m fearful that I am dying. I’ve seen the knife, I know I’ve been stabbed, all I’m thinking at that point is, ‘I need help,’” she testified, according to the BBC.

She also told the court the attack “came out of nowhere” and described the look on the teenager’s face as one of “pure hatred,” according to the outlet.

According to the BBC, a colleague rushed to help after hearing what was described in court as “gut-wrenching” screams, while CCTV footage captured the teenager running away from the school after the attack.

According to the BBC, the boy was later arrested at his grandmother’s home after telling her that “something went” in his head. His grandmother testified that he was crying and had his head hung low in his hands.

During the trial, the teenager claimed Williams saw the knife and tried to grab it from him, and that he “accidentally assaulted her” during the struggle, the BBC reported.

He also testified that he had brought the knife to school as part of a “game” with friends in which they brought random household objects to school to see what they could “get away with.” He said he selected the largest knife from the knife block at his home because it was “the most impressive one to show his friends.”

Asked by his defense barrister whether he wanted teachers to discover the knife, the teen said “no.” He also denied wanting to use it in a violent way or deliberately injure Williams, and denied there had been any bad feeling between him and his history teacher, according to the BBC.

Judge Paul Thomas KC accepted a majority verdict on the wounding-with-intent charge after approximately four hours of deliberations, meaning at least 10 jurors agreed on the verdict, the BBC reported.