'Harvey stabbed to death so violently, knife sliced through rib into his heart'

SCHOOLBOY Harvey Willgoose was stabbed to death with such force that the blade sliced through one of his ribs, a pathologist told a court yesterday.

- By Paul Jeeves

Dr Philip Lumb, who works for the Home Office, carried out the postmortem on the 15-year-old after he was knifed by a fellow pupil at All Saints Catholic High School — in Sheffield on February 3.

The killer, who is also 15 and cannot be named for legal reasons, denies murder but admits manslaughter. Dr Lumb told Sheffield Crown Court that he found an 8cm-deep stab wound in Harvey’s chest.

The weapon was a hunting knife with a 13cm serrated blade but it had “spurs” that prevented the entire length going in. They limited the depth to 10cm and were in the form of bottle openers, Dr Lumb said.

CCTV footage showed that Harvey collapsed after 49 seconds and Dr Lamb said it was not unusual for stab victims to succumb immediately.

The clip, shown to the court on Tuesday, shows Harvey appearing to put his hand on the defendant's right arm, prosecutors said, before the defendant “takes a knife out of his left pocket, passes it across into his right hand and then stabs twice at Harvey’s torso”.