Boy found guilty of attempting to murder girl he stabbed at school

A teenage boy who stabbed a girl in the back at his school has been found guilty of her attempted murder.

Prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC said the boy had an “obsessive and dangerous interest in killers and killing” and had written in a note about his “hatred for women”.

He said that on March 11, the defendant went to Thorpe St Andrew School in Norfolk “not to learn but to kill, taking with him a kitchen knife which he used to stab” a 15-year-old girl “in the back”.

He told a trial at King’s Lynn Crown Court the boy, then aged 15 and now 16, was “dressed in black, masked up and tooled up with a kitchen knife”.

The school went into lockdown after the attack and there was an armed police response, with the girl taken to hospital and later discharged.

Mr Paxton said it was “sheer good fortune” she was not more badly hurt.

The boy, who pleaded guilty to wounding with intent and possession of a knife at a school, did not give evidence in his defence.

He had denied attempted murder but a jury found him guilty on Wednesday after three hours and 54 minutes of deliberation.

The judge, Mr Justice Lickley, adjourned the case for a report to be prepared about the defendant and he asked that it look at the issue of “dangerousness”.

He asked the boy to stand up in the secure dock of the court and told him: “You’ve been found guilty by the jury of the offence of attempted murder.”

The judge said he was sure the boy understood how serious the matter was, and the boy nodded.

The judge told him he would be sentenced on December 18 at King’s Lynn Crown Court.

“I’m sure you understand because of the very serious nature of the offence I will have to consider not only a custodial sentence but one of some considerable length,” the judge said.

“I will make a final decision about that on December 18.

“Do you understand?”

The boy replied: “Yes sir”, before he was led to the cells.

Mr Paxton had told jurors that police found a “handwritten list of names” headed “‘victims’ with a question mark” after the attack.

He said the boy had a fascination with the fictional serial killer Paul Spector, from BBC TV show The Fall, and had added a caption saying “me btw” over a video of the character.

He said another video on the boy’s phone showed fictional serial killer Dexter Morgan, from the TV show Dexter, dancing over a map.

The prosecutor said that in a note written before the attack the defendant said: “I really want to do it, really bad, I hate having to wait, I hate it, but I have to wait.

“I’ve already got a good idea, tomorrow or Thursday or next week. That’s it.

“I want at least two, maybe three, I would be very proud of five.”

He said the defendant wrote of a “plan, attack on Thorpe St Andrew”.

The note continued: “Motive = misanthropy, misogyny, suicide, bullying. Weapon = knife x2? Death = 2+ hopefully, injuries a lot hopefully.”

He said a note, pinned up in the boy’s bedroom, said: “My barren world… Hello to all readers out there in the UK and perhaps even the world.

“If you’re reading this, I am either dead or in custody.

“I imagine the police will be the first to read this and seize it as evidence, so I will make something very clear.

“I made this decision to do so on my own.

“Nobody told me to. Just me.

“Nobody knew I wanted to do this. Not a single soul.”

The girl who was stabbed had said in evidence that it “felt like he touched me on the shoulder, then it felt like he punched me”, adding that she “didn’t know I was stabbed at this point”.

The girl described struggling to open a door, adding she was “struggling because everything was going numb and feeling weak”.

She said she went into a classroom where a teacher was and “I went: ‘Sir, I’ve been stabbed’”.

The boy was remanded until his sentencing.