A knife-obsessed teenager who stabbed another pupil to death in his school has been jailed for life with a minimum of 16 years.
Mohammed Umar Khan, 15, was named for the first time today as the boy responsible for murdering Harvey Willgoose, also 15, during their lunch break at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on February 3.
Khan inflicted a fatal stab to Harvey’s heart during a nine-second confrontation in front of other pupils in the school courtyard at 12.15pm. The two boys had recently fallen out on social media.
He was convicted of murder in August following a trial at Sheffield Crown Court, when he failed to persuade a jury that his actions were manslaughter because bullying had led him to lose his control.
Mrs Justice Ellenbogen today lifted a reporting restriction which has previously banned the press from naming the defendant, who was referred to as Umar throughout the trial.
Passing a sentence of life with a minimum term of 16 years, she told Khan that his actions had ‘blighted’ the lives of students and teachers at the school, adding: ‘From the evidence given at trial, it is clear that Harvey was also a popular pupil whom students and teachers held in affection.
‘Their lives too have been blighted by your actions, which have affected them deeply, and will continue to do so.’
She continued: ‘I’m also sure that you didn’t act to any extent in self-defence or 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’.
Mohammed Umar Khan, 15, has been detained for life with a minimum term of 16 years
Harvey Willgoose, 15, died from a stab wound to the heart when he was attacked at school
Khan is pictured holding the weapon used to kill fellow pupil Harvey, who he stabbed to death
She continued: ‘I’m also satisfied by the point at which you came to stab him, you were the aggressor and you acted in part from anger at what you considered to be the betrayal of your friendship.’
Media organisations had earlier argued the anonymity restrictions on Khan’s identity should be lifted because it would act as a deterrent to future offenders while increasingly public understanding of the scourge of knife crime.
Born and raised in Sheffield, Khan hails from a Pakistani family, but has lived and been educated in the city for his entire life.
He was in the same school year as Harvey.
Lifting the anonymity restrictions, the judge said: ‘This was a serious crime carried out by one pupil against another on school property with a knife that was brought into school and was witnessed to varying degrees by other pupils and teachers.
‘The public will wish to know the identity of those who commit serious offences in seeking to understand how a child of that age could do so.’
Harvey’s parents, Mark and Caroline, were today watching from the back row of the public gallery with other family members, including his sister, Sophie.
Sophie Willgoose fought back tears as she read a statement to the court on behalf of the family, describing how ‘our whole world was shattered forever’ by his death.
‘The defendant didn’t just end Harvey’s life, he ended ours too,’ she said.
She told the court their ‘beloved grandad John’ had died last week after his health rapidly deteriorated following the murder, which she said ‘broke my grandad’s heart’.
Khan pictured in handcuffs outside court. He was sentenced today at Sheffield Crown Court
The knife used by Khan to kill Harvey, who he stabbed to death during a school lunch break
Members of Harvey’s family arrive at Sheffield Crown Court for a previous hearing in August
‘We are not just grieving his loss, we are struggling to comprehend the fact that Harvey was murdered in the most cruel and inhumane way,’ she told the court.
‘We are trying to live each day while carrying a pain that is unbearable and impossible to make sense of.
‘The effects on our lives are far-reaching.’
The defendant’s family sat on the front row of the gallery, which looks down on the courtroom.
Khan was wearing a waterproof black hoodie in the glass-fronted dock and he was flanked by three security guards and an intermediary.
In mitigation for Khan, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, defending, told the court: ‘We respectfully submit Umar’s behaviour in the immediate aftermath is consistent with the jury’s verdict – of someone who lost his temper, but very quickly had started to calm down and very quickly started to become aware of what happened.’
He added: ‘This is a truly tragic case, a case that has affected this city and those who live in it – none more so than the Willgoose family.
‘The tragedy they have suffered will be used by them as motivation to achieve significant good and much of that has already been achieved.
‘Umar will have a significant period of time to reflect on his actions and on the long-standing harm that he has caused and that, while he has suffered pain, humiliation and ostracisation in the past, it’s nothing compared to the pain and loss that the parents of Harvey and his family have experienced – that is not lost upon him.
‘He will endeavour to use that entire period not only to reflect, but to change and to improve because, at the end of that sentence, he knows, unlike Harvey, he will have an opportunity of living a life – that blessing is not lost on him.’
Mr Hussain also told the sentencing hearing that, shortly after the judge ruled that his client could be named, social media messages appeared from ‘names familiar to those in this courtroom’.
He said the messages ‘seek to portray this tragic loss of life in colours and context that are so far removed from the facts of this case, and are only done to push forward an agenda that seeks to sow division and prevent any kind of unity, especially in terms of addressing issues that underpin this kind of offending’.
Harvey’s mother, Caroline, previously told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview that she blamed the school more than her son’s killer for his death.
The trial heard that Khan had a history of being bullied over a medical condition and became increasingly scared for his own personal safety in the months before the killing.
He described a difficult home life during his evidence, claiming his mother had mental issues and his father – who was often in Pakistan and absent from the family home – would beat him for minor indiscretions.
Police found his phone to be a catalogue of obsession: full of images and videos of him posing with his weapons or chasing people with them, as well as searches for all manner of weaponry.
On some clips he put drill rap music over the top and posted them on social media.
In December last year, his mother found an axe in his gym bag and informed the school, who called the police. He was then visited by a police officer who warned him at length about the dangers of carrying weapons – but he insisted that the axe was not his.
Harvey, however, had barely attended school that term and only found himself the focus of Khan’s rage when he made the fatal mistake of supporting another boy with whom he had fallen out during a social media row.
It related to an incident in the school five days before the fatal stabbing, on January 29.
On that day, Khan 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.
Ms Willgoose said Khan’s involvement in the knife scare represented a critical missed opportunity and, at very least, he should have been searched when he arrived at school on February 3.
On the morning of the attack, CCTV from the school showed Khan in a series of escalating confrontations with Harvey, which the prosecution said were attempts to ‘wind him up’.
Khan squared up to Harvey in a science lesson around an hour before the stabbing and gestured with his hand inside his jacket pocket ‘like he had a knife’.
At 12.15pm, when the lunch break started, Harvey approached Khan in the school courtyard to confront him and he could be seen on CCTV pushing Khan’s shoulder.
Khan immediately produced a knife from a coat pocket and lunged at Harvey, twice.
The first stab wound pierced his heart and was dealt with such ferocity it broke through a rib, while the second was a more glancing blow as Harvey retreated.
The entire confrontation lasted just nine seconds. Within 49 seconds, Harvey had collapsed to the floor and slipped into unconsciousness.
The boy then told a teacher as he handed over the murder weapon: ‘I’m not right in the head. My mum doesn’t look after me right.’
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail in August, Harvey’s mother Caroline Willgoose has launched a blistering attack on her son’s school – claiming they missed a litany of red flags about his killer.
The Daily Mail revealed a concerned parent contacted All Saints as far back as October 2024 after hearing Khan had been showing other pupils an axe in school.
But the school apparently failed to take any action against the pupil, with no reference made to it in his official school record, despite the parent being told the matter would be investigated.
The revelations suggest the school was aware of the killer’s dangerous fixation with weapons months earlier than previously realised.
Ms Willgoose said: ‘I blame them. I blame them more than him. There were so many flags.’
