A 16-year-old teenage boy has been sentenced to nine years in lock up after he was found guilty of stabbing to death another young boy his age in school.
In October 2015, Bailey Gwynne was attacked during his lunch hour following what was dubbed as a silly argument at Cults Academy in Aberdeen. His killer carried an 8.5cm blade that he bought online.
Bailey died from bleeding due to a single stab wound to the heart.
The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denied the murder. After a five-day trial at the High Court in Aberdeen last March, Lady Stacey convicted the boy of culpable homicide, a lesser charge than murder.
The judge argued that Bailey’s death would have been avoided had the teenager not chosen to carry a knife to school. “If you had not carried a knife, the exchange of insults between you and Bailey would have led at the worst to a fist fight…certainly no loss of life.”
She made it clear to everyone that the court considers it a serious matter if anyone was ever tempted to carry a knife.
The argument started when Bailey squared up to the offender because of a remark made about his mother. His attacker then pulled out a knife and stabbed him.
The convicted teenager said he bought the weapon without having to prove his age. He then had it delivered to his home without his mother’s knowledge. He carried the blade to school as it made him look cool.
The boy’s lawyer Ian Duguid QC said that the youth was “profoundly sorry”, and that he realised that he would be paying for the consequences of his action for the rest of his life.
After the trial, Bailey’s mother, Kate Gwynne, said that “Nothing will give us back what has been taken and the only thing that we truly want”.
The court heard that the young offender is undergoing treatment for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.