Boy found guilty of attempted murder in school stabbing trial
A 16-year-old boy who stabbed a girl in a Norfolk school has been warned he faces a “considerable” sentence after being found guilty of attempted murder.
The youth, who can’t be named for legal reasons, has been on trial at King’s Lynn Crown Court after denying intending to kill the 15-year-old fellow pupil when he stabbed her at Thorpe St Andrew School in Norwich on March 11.
The jury of eight men and four women took three hours and 54 minutes to reach their verdict.
Judge the Hon Mr Justice Lickley told the boy he faced a “considerable” custodial sentence because of the seriousness of the offence, before he adjourned sentencing until December 18 for reports.
As the trial began prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC detailed the boy’s “obsessive and dangerous interest in killers and killing,” citing notes expressing “hatred for women” and a desire for violence.
Evidence included a self-generated video glorifying serial killers and a handwritten list labelled “victims”.
In another note, Mr Paxton said the boy wrote: “My whole life I’ve felt an attraction to violence.
“I don’t know the reason. My brain clicks at the thought of chaos. Of blood. Of murder.
“I’ve seen killers being admired. I want admiration.”
Mr Paxton told jurors: “We the prosecution say his intention is made plain not just by those moments of the stabbing, but made plain by his notes and his obsession with killing and being fuelled by hatred.”
It had also been heard by the jury that the boy searched the internet for a man considered to be an early adopter of incel and manosphere culture.
An incel, short for “involuntary celibate”, is someone who identifies as being unable to find a romantic partner despite wanting one.
The term is also associated with online communities in which some members express misogynistic views, hostility towards women and resentment towards people who are in relationships.
The prosecution said examination of the defendant’s phone showed searches for Elliot Rodger, described to jurors as an “early influence on incel and manosphere culture”.
The victim, then aged 15, told police in a video-recorded interview played to jurors that she had seen a masked person dressed “head to toe in black, no school uniform on whatsoever”.
She said she turned away and it “felt like he touched me on the shoulder, then it felt like he punched me”.
She said the boy did not say anything to her and she did not recognise him.
The girl described struggling to open a door after “speed walking” away from the scene of the attack, adding she was “struggling because everything was going numb and feeling weak”.
She said she went into a classroom and told a teacher she had been stabbed.
Another girl who witnessed the attack said she recognised the boy.
The defendant declined to give evidence in the case. Stephen Rose KC, defending the boy described the case as “a very serious and troubling” one as he began his closing speech.
Mr Rose said the boy had admitted wounding with intent and possessing a bladed object but had not intended to kill the girl despite planning the attack at the school.
Mr Rose said the boy had accepted responsibility for his actions. But he added he had “contemplated, thought about and reflected on” a far more extensive and brutal attack, which included stabbing a teacher before turning to a list of victims he had drawn up.
“He did not cut anybody’s throat, he did not intend to,” he said. “He did not plunge the knife into anybody’s heart, he had every opportunity to.”
Mr Rose said the boy had stabbed the girl with “limited force”, adding: “We suggest, respectfully, that the wound was slight and shallow.”
He said medical evidence showed the wound could have been as shallow as 4mm and was treated with steri-strips, while there was no penetration of the lungs or heart.
“It wasn’t even, dare I suggest it, a life-threatening wound,” he said.
Mr Rose said there was “a discrepancy” between the boy’s alleged intentions and the outcome.
He said he had stabbed the girl once and would have done repeatedly had he intended to kill her, after his first blow had failed to do so.
He added instead the boy pushed her away, putting her out of reach of his knife.
The sentencing has been adjourned until December 18.
Eastern Daily Press
