The ‘heartbroken’ mum of a teenager who died after being stabbed at school battles tears during a break away in Turkey to deliver her latest appeal for an end to knife crime
The mum of a teen left “heartbroken” after her son was stabbed to death at school has spoken of her agony watching young men having the “time of their life.” During a break away in Turkey the mum made an emotional video from her hotel room, appealing for young people to “please stop” carrying knives.
Caroline Willgoose’s son, Harvey, was killed at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on February 3rd. After the tragedy his parents launched a campaign to fight knife crime and on Thursday they met Home Secretary Yvette Cooper after an announcement that ninja swords were to be banned from August 1st. Caroline has called for greater action, including introducing knife arches – a type of walk-through metal detector – in schools.
In a video on Facebook at the weekend, she battles tears to make an appeal from her hotel room: “We’ve come away, we are supposed to be going to Tenerife but we haven’t because we went at Christmas and had an amazing time with our Harvey. So we’ve come to Turkey and some friends are coming out on Monday.
“What I want to say is, that I go downstairs and there’s all these kids, these 20 year olds, that are having the time of their life what Harvey’s never going to have because he went when he was 15 and I just want all these people that are carrying knives, please stop because there’s no reason to do this.
“He’s been took away from us and I don’t know how I’m going to get through this. If this gets to people that are carrying knives, please don’t. Everyone has got a right to life and I don’t want anybody to go through what we are going through right now., we are heartbroken, we are not brave…I’m just trying to do something for all those kids out there who’ve got a right for life. Please stop what you’re doing.”
After Harvey’s death, the mum told of feeling “guilty” because she persuaded him to attend school the day he was stabbed to death. She told ITV News: “I feel guilty, because we goaded him ‘you need to go to school’…He didn’t want to go. I just feel terrible.”
She has told how his last words he spoke to her was the morning he left for school. She said: “He shouted ‘I’m going to school mum are you proud of me?’ I went yes, and I followed him out. He went ‘lock the door behind’, and he said ‘I love you’. They were his last words.”
Harvey suffered a fatal stab wound to the heart as horrified children watched on. A 15 year old boy has been charged with murder. More than £27,000 was raised online after Harvey’s death to help pay for his funeral. He was laid to rest in a coffin displaying his favourite football team’s colours of red and white and a picture of the home ground of Sheffield United FC.
After her meeting with the Home Secretary, Mrs Willgoose said of the politician, she “wants to work with us”, and Mr Willgoose said she “agreed with a lot of what was said”. But the couple want measures to go even further. “Obviously we’re pushing for knife arches in schools and she’s not against that, but obviously that’s something schools will take on board themselves.”
Mr Willgoose said. A knife arch is a walk-through metal detector, but this is something each school would have to decide to introduce and cannot be enforced by the government. Mrs Willgoose thinks one school will have to be a trailblazer for others to follow. But for now, she said, education was the way forward.
“I want kids to be educated in schools about what knife crime does to people; what impact it has had on us; what impact it has had on his friends, family; what impact it has had on other children in the school there,” she said.
