Harvey Willgoose’s mother says ‘weight has been lifted’ after killer detained

The mother of Harvey Willgoose said “a big weight’s been lifted off my shoulders” after the boy who stabbed her son to death at their school was detained for at least 16 years.

Mohammed Umar Khan, 15, took a hunting knife to All Saints Catholic High School, in Sheffield, and knifed Harvey, who was also 15, in the heart in front of horrified children and teachers.

Khan was detained for life on Wednesday by a judge who also decided to lift the anonymity order which prevented him from being named when he was found guilty of murder in August.

After Khan was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court, Harvey’s mother, Caroline Willgoose, told reporters she was pleased Khan had been “made an example of”.

She said: “I feel like a big weight’s been lifted off my shoulders, to be honest.

“We just need to get on with our lives and try and do good things for our Harvey, for those kids.”

She added: “He (Khan) doesn’t look like he’s sorry but I just hope that’s his mask.”

Mrs Willgoose, who has campaigned with her husband Mark for knife arches in schools since her son was killed on February 3, said the tragedy has taken a huge toll on her family.

She said this included on her father, who was Harvey’s “best friend” and who died last week.

Mrs Willgoose said: “My dad couldn’t cope with the grief and he found out he’d got cancer just after.

“I said ‘this is going to kill my dad’, and it did.”

Harvey’s sister Sophie told the court earlier how her brother’s murder was “not just a crime against my brother, it was a crime against all of us who loved him”.

Ms Willgoose continued: “The pain will remain with us for the rest of our lives.”

And she added that her brother “had a cheeky character, a brilliant sense of humour and a warmth that made everyone love him”.

Ms Willgoose said her family are “struggling to comprehend the fact that Harvey was murdered in the most cruel and inhumane way”.

The Willgoose family watched from the public gallery as Khan stood in the glass-fronted dock for his sentencing, wearing a black waterproof hoodie and flanked by three security guards and an intermediary.

He showed no emotion as Mrs Justice Ellenbogen told him he will detained for life with a minimum term of 16 years before he is eligible to apply for parole.

The judge told him: “You were the aggressor and … you acted in hurt and anger at what you considered to be his betrayal of your friendship.”

She said she did not accept that Khan acted in self defence or out of fear of violence.

The judge said she accepted that Harvey may have made some provocative remarks but these were “not at a level which indicated to you that Harvey posed any real threat at that time, or provides any mitigation for what followed”.

Earlier, the judge agreed to lift an order banning Khan’s identification following applications from a number of media organisations, including the PA news agency.

The judge said: “The public will wish to know the identity of those who commit such offences in seeking to understand how it is a child of that age can do so.”

Khan’s trial heard how other pupils fled “in fear and panic”, some locking themselves in a school cupboard, after the fatal attack.

The jury watched CCTV footage of the incident which showed how he stabbed Harvey twice.

One of the blows cut through one of his ribs and pierced his heart.

Jurors heard Khan told All Saints headteacher Sean Pender immediately after the stabbing: “I’m not right in the head. My mum doesn’t look after me right.”

The school’s assistant head, Morgan Davis, took the knife off the defendant and heard him say “you know I can’t control it”, which the teacher took to be a reference to his anger issues, given previous incidents of violent behaviour at school.

The jury was told how Harvey and the defendant fell out following an incident in the school five days before the fatal stabbing, on January 29.

On that day, the defendant tried to intervene in an altercation involving two other boys and had to be restrained by a teacher.

When he claimed one of these boys had a knife, a lockdown was declared and police were called, although no weapon was found.

Harvey was not at school that day and stayed off for the rest of the week, texting his father: “Am not going in that school while people have knives.”

Over the weekend before the stabbing on Monday morning, Harvey and the defendant fell out on social media, with each siding with a different boy involved in the lockdown incident.

When the defendant returned to school on Monday February 3, he was asked by Mr Davis whether he had anything he should not and said he did not.

The jury has heard about a series of encounters between Harvey and the defendant that morning before the defendant pulled out the knife and used it just after the start of the lunch break, which began at 12.10pm.

The court was shown images and video found on the defendant’s phone which captured him posing with knives and other weapons, and was told how he had used search terms relating to weapons on the internet.

The boy told the court how he decided to carry a knife for protection as he feared other teenagers whom he believed were carrying weapons.