Schoolboy targeted young, female teacher in ‘cowardly’ knife attack, court hears

A schoolboy accused of stabbing a teacher deliberately targeted a young, female member of staff, a court has heard.

The 16-year-old defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to attempting to murder Vicki Williams at Milford Haven Comprehensive School in February.

The boy, who was 15 at the time of the alleged attack, is accused of deliberately stabbing Mrs Williams in the head.

On Friday, Swansea Crown Court heard Mrs Williams was a “lone female teacher” and an “easy target” when the boy allegedly launched his attack.

Christopher Rees KC, prosecuting, said in his closing speech: “He knows the truth about what he did, he just doesn’t have, I’m afraid, the courage or the remorse to tell anyone about it.

“He brought the knife into school because he planned to attack the teacher.

“Why Vicki Williams? Well, she was, at quarter past three, a lone female teacher, she was an easy target.

“He’s not attacked a male teacher, has he? He’s attacked one of the young, female teachers, alone in her classroom.”

The court previously heard the boy approached her desk on the afternoon of February 5 this year to ask her to check his work.

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

The jury was told the student then pulled a large kitchen knife from his bag, allegedly striking her in the head.

The court previously heard 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 premises, before he went to his grandmother’s home, telling her: “Something went in my head, nan.”

Mr Rees said: “The closest we will ever get to why (he) did this, because he’ll never say, is: ‘Something went in my head.’”

“It is only because he struck the back of her skull, and she fought back, that she is here to tell you,” he added.

Earlier in the trial, the boy told the court Mrs Williams had seen him with the knife and “tried to grab it” from him, in the course of which he “accidentally assaulted her”.

Matthew Roberts KC, defending, said: “If he was truly minded, as the prosecution say, to kill Vicki Williams, he could easily have done so.

“He is much stronger than Vicki, who would have not been able to, we suggest, fight him off at all.”

Mr Roberts suggested the student had brought the kitchen knife into school in order to “show off” to other boys.

He said: “There was no recorded history of conflict between (the student) and Vicki Williams.

“There is no evidence of any animosity or any ill feeling between them at all.

“(He), we say, had no reason whatsoever to want to hurt Vicki Williams.”

The court previously heard Mrs Williams attended hospital in Haverfordwest and was found to have sustained a wound to her scalp, scratches on her back and minor cuts to her hands.

The boy denies attempted murder, unlawful wounding and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The trial continues.