MILFORD HAVEN: Boy who stabbed teacher in the head in school classroom detained for four and a half years

A teenager who stabbed a teacher in the head with a kitchen knife in a classroom at Milford Haven Comprehensive School has been sentenced to four and a half years in youth detention.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named because of his age, was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court on Thursday after a jury found him guilty in July of wounding with intent. He was cleared of attempted murder.

He had earlier admitted possessing a knife on school premises. He was 15 at the time of the attack.

The court heard the boy followed history teacher Vicki Williams into an empty classroom shortly after 3pm on 5 February and asked her to check his schoolwork, before closing the door behind him.

Mrs Williams told the trial that alarm bells began ringing when he shut the door and seemed cold towards her. He then pulled a large kitchen knife from his bag and stabbed her in the head.

She grabbed the knife, pushed the boy away with her legs and screamed, suffering a wound to her scalp along with injuries to her back and hands. She was treated at hospital in Haverfordwest, and the school was placed into lockdown.

The boy was charged two days later and told the trial the injuries were accidental, caused in a struggle after Mrs Williams saw the knife and tried to grab it. The jury convicted him of wounding with intent by a majority.

In a statement read at the sentencing hearing, Mrs Williams said she did not know whether she would be able to return to work, and begins therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder this week.

She said she was left with feelings of sadness, anger and guilt, and that her daughter had “almost been left without a mum”.

Sentencing him, Judge Paul Thomas KC said it was “pure luck” Mrs Williams had not suffered far worse or even fatal injuries.

“I don’t know why you attacked Mrs Williams with that knife, you never told anybody why you did it,” the judge said. “What I do know for certain is that you took a knife that day to school because you wanted to really hurt her with it.”

Det Insp Sarah Totterdale of Dyfed-Powys Police said officers attended quickly along with other emergency services on the day, and a lockdown was put in place before the boy was traced and arrested.

She said Mrs Williams had shown “immense bravery”, adding that reliving the events of that day during the trial must have been “incredibly traumatic”.

The detective also thanked teachers, pupils and the wider Milford Haven community, who she said would have felt the impact of the incident, along with emergency service partners and Pembrokeshire County Council.