Boy accused of stabbing girl at school sent mother ‘I’m sorry’ message

A boy accused of stabbing a girl in the back at his school sent his mother a message saying “I’m sorry”, a court heard.

The boy, who was aged 15 at the time, is on trial at King’s Lynn Crown Court accused of the girl’s attempted murder at Thorpe St Andrew School near Norwich on 11 March.

He is accused of stabbing the girl, then aged 15, in the back. He denies attempted murder.

The boy’s mother, giving evidence on Monday, said that on the morning of 11 March her son “seemed normal”.

She said he was “wearing a school uniform” and “left for school at the normal time”.

She said that later that day she became aware of an issue at the school, through a school Facebook group.

She said she messaged her son asking if everything was OK and if he was in class, but “didn’t get an immediate response”.

The boy’s mother said she saw on a location app that her son’s phone location was off the school site and “that did worry me”.

She said that a message later came up on her iPad, from her son, saying: “I’m sorry”.

She said she called him and on her second attempt he answered.

“I just asked him where he was and I could sort of hear him breathing and he said ‘I’m sorry’,” she said.

“I think I asked ‘what have you done, what’s happened’ and he replied with ‘nothing good’.”

She said she believed she asked again where he was and what had happened and “he said ‘nothing good, I’ve hurt someone’”.

She said she had “just needed to know where he was and that he was safe”.

“I said I think the police are looking for you,” she said.

“He said ‘I think I can see them near the school, I will walk back towards them’.”

She said that in the call her son “didn’t quite seem like himself”.

“He was sighing and not saying very much at all, very short sentences,” she said.

“He sounded not panicky but very upset.”

She said she did not remember who ended the call “but I told him to stay where he was and either me or the police would find him, I think he said OK”.

She said she called 999 and gave the location information that she had.

She said she had been in “complete shock”.

A male teacher, also giving evidence to the trial, told jurors that a female student who was “distressed” had told him another student had been stabbed.

He said he went into a corridor and “the only person I saw was dressed completely in black – there were no other students, I didn’t see anyone who had been stabbed”.

He said he did not know who it was and could not be certain if the person in black was male or female.

The teacher said he “ran after the person” and was “shouting after them to stop”.

“I wanted them to stop so I could find out what’s going on,” he said.

He said he did not catch up with the person, and the school went into lockdown.

He described this as a “continuous bell” sounding, and “all teachers are expected to be in their classrooms with the doors shut, barricaded if there are no locks”.

He said that in lockdown students go under desks with the lights off to try to make themselves less visible.

“I almost at the time couldn’t believe what she (the female student) was saying, that someone had been stabbed,” he said.