Schoolboy sentenced for stabbing teacher in the head

Rod Minchin, Press Association

A schoolboy who stabbed a teacher in the head after asking her to check his homework has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in youth detention.

The 16-year-old attacked history teacher Vicki Williams at Milford Haven Comprehensive School in Pembrokeshire in February, Swansea Crown Court heard.

The defendant, who was 15 at the time, was found guilty of wounding with intent after being acquitted by a jury of attempted murder.

Passing sentence, Judge Paul Thomas KC said it was “pure luck” Mrs Williams had not been seriously injured or worse.

“I don’t know why you attacked Mrs Williams with that knife, you never told anybody why you did it,” the judge said.

“I think it may have been that in some way she had upset you, but I don’t know for certain why.

“What I do know for certain is that you took a knife that day to school because you wanted to really hurt her with it.

“You knew what you were going to do was very wrong, but you had planned it in advance.

“You knew she would not be any physical match for you and when you stabbed her in the top of her head with the knife, you knew that at the very least that might cause her a great deal of harm.

“It was pure luck that she did not have far worse injuries, maybe even fatal injuries.

“You could have killed her, although the jury found that you didn’t mean to go that far.”

The judge said the defendant had never shown any remorse for what he had done and the court had a duty to protect teachers.

“The courts have to try to keep teachers safe from attacks on them by pupils,” he said.

“This is the second case of a school pupil stabbing a teacher in school in the same Welsh county in the last couple of years.

“I want anyone who is ever thinking in the future of doing the same to know what will happen to them if they do.

“They will spend a lot of their teenage years and perhaps beyond unable to go out with their friends, go and do what they want, go on holidays, have fun, be with their parents, follow their hobbies, and do what the rest of their friends are doing.

“That is what happens, and that is what’s going to happen to you – the people who attack teachers with knives.”

The teenager was also sentenced for possessing a kitchen knife on the school grounds, which he had previously admitted. The judge imposed no separate penalty.

During the trial, the teenager told the court Mrs Williams had seen the knife in his rucksack and “tried to grab it” from him. He said he “accidentally assaulted her” in the ensuing struggle.

The boy approached her desk on the afternoon of February 5 to ask her to check his work.

Mrs Williams said “alarm bells” began to ring in her head when he shut the door to the classroom, saying it was cold.

He then pulled an eight-inch kitchen knife from his bag, striking her in the head.

The court heard that a “violent struggle” ensued in which Mrs Williams tried to take the knife from him, before he ran from the school.

The jury was shown CCTV of the teenager leaving the school premises, before he went to his grandmother’s home, telling her: “Something went in my head, nan.”

Mrs Williams went to hospital in Haverfordwest and was found to have sustained a wound to her scalp, scratches on her back and minor cuts to her hands.

She told the jury she believed she was dying after the incident.

Christopher Rees KC, prosecuting, said: “The prosecution case was that he had deliberately brought a knife into school in order to attack Vicki Williams.

“It was a carefully planned attack. He waited until Vicki Williams was alone in her classroom after the school day had concluded.”

‘Sadness’

In a victim impact statement, Mrs Williams said it had been an “emotional rollercoaster” since the incident and she was yet to return to work.

“The three main emotions I’m feeling are sadness, anger, and guilt. Sadness is the most predominant,” she said.

“I’m focusing too much on what could have happened to me.

“Although I feel guilty, I know I wouldn’t be able to go back to school. I don’t think I could be the same teacher I was before.

“All it would take is a pupil to ask for help, like he did, and I will freak out.

“I’m scared of being alone with the children in school, which I would be if I went back to work.

“School starts again in early September and at the moment I don’t think I’ll be returning.

“I have no return-to-work plans in place with the school at the moment, I don’t feel I could be the teacher I was.”

‘Out of character’

Matthew Roberts KC, defending, said the incident was “out of character” for the teenager.

“One is dealing with a young boy of hitherto clean character,” he said.

“On any view of the evidence in this case, what he did on that day was thoroughly out of character.

“There is an excellent supportive environment for him. He has had the support of his family throughout these proceedings on almost a daily basis.

“He has, when he is ultimately released, a home, and a supportive, caring environment to go to.”

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