An Aberdeen schoolboy accused of murdering a fellow pupil phoned his parents to tell them he had stabbed someone – before admitting the attack was carried out in a “moment of anger”.
Bailey Gwynne died on October 28 after being stabbed during a fight over a biscuit in the corridors of Cults Academy.
The other 16-year-old boy involved in the incident – who cannot be named for legal reasons – accepts he stabbed Bailey through the heart with a four inch blade, but denies murder.
Yesterday jurors at the High Court in Aberdeen heard that following the brawl the accused broke down in tears and phoned his parents.
The school’s deputy head teacher, David Strang, said the pupil had been brought to him following the fight while medics tried to revive Bailey.
Mr Strang said the accused appeared “anxious and agitated” when he first entered his office at the front of the school.
He said: “He was initially brought in and he sat down. I was just told there had been an incident. A fight. He sat at a table, like a circular desk at the door.
“There were times when he got upset and he put his head into his hands and sobbed a bit, then he would compose himself.”
Mr Strang said that when he started to cry he gave the boy a tissue which he said he used to wipe blood from his hands.
He said: “He asked if he could put the tissue I gave him in the bin. He wiped his hands, he wiped blood off his hands with the tissues.”
Advocate depute Alex Prentice, prosecuting, asked the teacher if he had seen the blood, and he replied that he had.
Mr Strang said that when the teen went to dispose of the tissue he also handed him a knuckle duster from his pocket.
The court heard the boy then called his parents and sent a text message to his brother.
Mr Strang said: “As far as I can remember he called his dad and then his mum. He made reference to the fact that he had been in a fight, I am struggling to remember the details but I think he said he had stabbed someone.”
The accused’s defence counsel, Ian Duguid, QC, asked the witness if his client had mentioned Bailey by name while he was having a conversation on the phone.
Mr Strang said he could not remember but added: “He said he had been called fat and that he had retaliated by saying his mum was fat and the fight broke out from there.”
Mr Duguid said: “So, he had been called fat and then he called someone’s mother fat and that had been the prelude to a fight?”
Mr Strang agreed.
The court heard after the phone call Constable Christopher Masson, one of the first police officers to arrive at the school, entered the office.
Constable Masson told the jury that he had initially ensured Bailey was receiving medical attention.
He said after that a staff member led him to the accused who was with the deputy head teacher in his office.
The police officer said the accused was “quite distressed” when he first saw him.
He said it was obvious he had been upset for a while before he had arrived and said it was clear he had been crying.
And he told the court that one of the first things the teen said was: “Is he dead? It was just a moment of anger.”
As the officer’s notes were read out to the court yesterday, the accused broke down in tears in the dock.
At one point the youth seemed so distressed judge Lady Stacey adjourned the court for a short break.
Constable Masson said the accused told him that the knife used to carry out the attack was in a bin near the school canteen and offered to show it to him.
The court heard previously that the brown and black handled folding knife was later recovered by a scenes of crime officer from the bin.