Teacher attacked pupil shouting ‘die, die, die’
Peter Harvey, 50, bludgeoned the 14-year-old boy during a science lesson last July, the court heard.
Harvey denies attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, but has admitted a charge of GBH.
Prosecutor Stuart Rafferty told Nottingham Crown Court Harvey was “well, happy and in a positive frame of mind” on the morning of the attack.
He said: “A girl who had behaviour difficulties was being disruptive and was messing about with a whiteboard and then started messing about with a window blind.
“He told her to stop and there were words between them. He seems to have pulled her away from the window by her bag on her shoulder and shouted at her and it was alleged he kicked her.
“She left the classroom in tears and some of the class took exception to the way she had been treated and started calling him a psycho.
“He didn’t seem to respond to that and told the class to get on with their work.
“The boy began to mess about with a wooden metre rule. He was wandering about the classroom with it, sword fighting with another pupil.”
Rafferty added: “He told him to put it down and he did. The boy then took out a metal bunsen burner stand and was waving it about in a similar way.
“Mr Harvey chased him around the classroom and it came to a point when the boy told him to ‘f**k off’.
“That seems to have lit the blue touch paper because Mr Harvey grabbed him by his collar and started dragging him out of the classroom.
“He got him out of the classroom and down the corridor into a preparation room.
“He threw him to the ground and armed himself with a 3kg dumbbell and began to hit the boy about the head with it.
“He struck at least two blows to the head which caused serious injury, really serious injury.
“At the time the blows were being struck Mr Harvey was only heard to say one thing.
“What he was saying was ‘die, die, die’.”
The court heard that one pupil tried to drag Harvey off the boy, who was lying on his back looking “frightened and confused.”
The teacher was kneeling above him, raising the dumbbell to shoulder height for each of the blows, the jury was told.
The schoolboy was left with a fractured right temple bone and severe cuts to his head.
Rafferty said: “No-one can say for one moment what happened to this boy was deserved or justified.
“What he [Harvey] did was grossly disproportionate to the wrong inflicted on him by the boy or other members of the class.
“There was simply no excuse for what happened.
The court heard that Harvey later told police he felt like he was watching himself on television.
He said he was not feeling any emotion and “couldn’t think at all”.
The jury was told Harvey has admitted one count of grievous bodily harm without intent.
He denies a charge of attempted murder and an alternative charge of grievous bodily harm with intent to cause serious injury.
The prosecution alleges he knew what he was doing when he attacked the pupil and it was not a moment when the “red mist” descended and he was unaware of his actions.
Harvey had a history of mental health problems, the jury heard.
A teacher at All Saints’ Roman Catholic School in Mansfield for 16 years, he was sent home in December 2008 after he contacted the school’s education adviser Shahrukh Mugaseth.
The prosecutor said: “He approached the education adviser and said he had feelings his actions couldn’t be trusted and he might cause harm to somebody.
“As a result he was sent home that day and stayed at home for some time, until April 2009.”
He said some pupils “seemed to regard him as a soft touch and as teenagers could, some of them pushed the boundaries. But any of that does not justify what happened.”
Rafferty said that prior to 2008, Harvey had been off once before with stress after a pupil threatened him at his home after he stuck up for a female colleague who had been pushed into a bush.
After he was given time off at the end of 2008 he received counselling.
The trial continues.
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