Schoolboy who stabbed his teacher in the head not guilty of attempted murder

A schoolboy has been acquitted of attempted murder but found guilty of wounding with intent after stabbing his teacher in the head.

The teenager attacked Vicki Williams at Milford Haven Comprehensive School in Pembrokeshire in February. He was 15 at the time and cannot be named for legal reasons.

A Swansea Crown Court jury reached a majority verdict of 11 to one to convict the boy of wounding with intent after just over four hours of deliberation, on Monday.

The court had previously heard that the pupil, now 16, deliberately stabbed Mrs Williams after asking the history teacher to check his schoolwork.

He had approached her desk on the afternoon of 5 February. Mrs Williams said "alarm bells" began to ring in her head when he shut the door to the classroom, saying it was cold.

The jury was told the student then pulled a large kitchen knife from his bag, striking her in the head. The court heard that a "violent struggle" ensued in which Mrs Williams tried to take the knife from him before he ran from the school.

Earlier in the trial the boy told the court Mrs Williams had seen him with the knife and "tried to grab it" from him. He said he "accidentally assaulted her" in the ensuing struggle.

The boy pleaded guilty to possessing a kitchen knife on the school grounds.

Mrs Williams went to hospital in Haverfordwest and was found to have a wound to her scalp, scratches on her back and minor cuts to her hands.

The teacher told the jury she believed she was dying after the incident, which the prosecution said was a "sustained attack" and would have continued had she not disarmed him.

Matthew Roberts KC, defending, previously suggested the student had brought the kitchen knife into school in order to "show off" to other boys.

He said: "There was no recorded history of conflict between (the student) and Vicki Williams.

"There is no evidence of any animosity or any ill feeling between them at all."

The jury was shown CCTV of the teenager leaving the school premises, before he went to his grandmother's home, telling her: "Something went in my head, nan."

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Christopher Rees KC, prosecuting, said in his closing speech last week: "He knows the truth about what he did, he just doesn't have, I'm afraid, the courage or the remorse to tell anyone about it.

"He brought the knife into school because he planned to attack the teacher.

"Why Vicki Williams? Well, she was, at quarter past three, a lone female teacher, she was an easy target."

The boy will be sentenced on 3 September.

(c) Sky News 2026: Schoolboy who stabbed his teacher in the head not guilty of attempted murder