Family ‘ripped apart’ by boy’s murder

THE mother of a teenager stabbed to death in a school corridor broke down in tears yesterday as she said her family had been “ripped apart” by the tragedy.

Luke Walmsley, aged 14, was stabbed through the heart following an apparent row with a fellow pupil near the science laboratory at Birkbeck School in North Somercotes, Lincolnshire, on Tuesday morning.

A 15-year-old fellow pupil has been arrested and is being interviewed by detectives in the presence of a parent. Police had until midnight last night to question him.

Lincolnshire Police said they were treating the death as murder.

Luke’s distraught mother Jayne Walmsley told reporters how life would never be the same again following her son’s death.

Flanked by her ex-husband Paul and current partner Mark Rowbotham she broke down in tears outside her former husband’s large detached home in North Somercotes as she paid tribute to her son.

She said: “Yesterday, I woke up with two children, but today I have only one. Our family has been ripped apart and will never be the same again. Luke loved life and loved sport.”

She told reporters her son was a member of Grimsby Judo Club and he played football for the North Somercotes under-15s. She revealed he wanted to become a policeman when he left school.

Mrs Walmsley asked for space and time for her family to grieve.

She added: “Luke did not deserve this to happen and we as a family just want justice to be done for Luke.”

Education chiefs declined to comment on reports that bullying may have been a factor and Luke may have been apprehensive about coming to school.

Dr Cheryle Berry, director of education and cultural services at Lincolnshire County Council, said it would be wrong to start speculating adding: “There are several lines of inquiry.”

Luke lived with his mother in Cleethorpes and she brought him to school each day. He had a younger sister called Lauren.

Yesterday police confirmed the latest tragedy unfolded at 10am on Tuesday in one of the corridors of the 276-pupil secondary school located on the rural Lincolnshire coast.

Teachers initially gave the teenager first aid before he was taken by air ambulance to hospital in Grimsby where he died. Police have recovered a knife but have refused to release any description of it.