A Cults Academy schoolboy who fatally stabbed a fellow pupil during a lunchtime brawl told police he “tried to save him” as he confessed to the killing.
The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, struck Bailey Gwynne through the heart on October 28 last year after insults were exchanged following a row about a biscuit.
The youth admits killing him but denies murder and is on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen.
Jurors heard yesterday that he told officers investigating the case that he “didn’t mean to stab Bailey”.
Yesterday the court was shown the full video recording of the youth’s police interview.
Dressed in police-issue blue paper shorts and T-shirt the teenager can be seen in the footage sitting in an interview room next to his solicitor Peter Shepherd.
Seated across from him are Detective Constable Elinor Bosanquet and her colleague Detective Constable David Runcie who quizzed the youth for 40 minutes.
Throughout the interview, the accused broke down on several occasions when recalling Bailey’s final moments.
The court heard an argument started after Bailey refused to give the accused’s best friend a biscuit and made a remark about him being too fat.
During the police interview, the youth said: “At that point I said ‘just like your mum’ and he started to approach me as he was saying to people ‘who said that?’.
“As he approached me I saw his reflection in the glass and he looked angry. As he approached me I pulled out the knife, opened it up and tried to scare him away with it.
“He came closer and I got pretty scared so tried to scare him away again by like moving it. He got in the way and it stabbed him. After that he threw a few punches.
“A teacher came in at that point and that’s when I noticed he was bleeding. The teacher said ‘you are bleeding pretty bad’ and said go to the office to get first aid.”
The accused told officers that as Bailey’s condition started to deteriorate, as they walked down a corridor in the school known as “the street”, he tried to save his victim.
He said: “The teacher said to someone to call first aid and I went over to him and tried to take his blazer off so I could stop the bleeding but blood was just spewing out. I was trying to help but I was told to go sit in the corner.”
The court heard he was then taken to deputy head David Strang’s office where he was told to wait until the police arrived.
The teenager said: “I got to Mr Strang’s office and sat down and I said to him ‘I know he’s going to die, I know he’s going to die, I’m going to prison’.
“At this point I phoned my mum and dad and texted my brother and said I loved them. My mum said she loved me and my dad said he was on his way.”
The schoolboy, who had been studying for his Higher exams before the attack, then started to weep.
He told the interviewing officers: “Over the next 10 minutes I kept saying ‘he’s going to die’.
“I was still crying, with my head in my hands when I got escorted to the police car. I saw my dad outside and I just stated to my dad that I loved him.
“I was told I was detained for attempted murder but then I found out Bailey was dead.”
The teen told the detectives that he did not realise he had stabbed Bailey until it was too late.
He said that as Bailey came towards him he took the knife out as a warning. He said he was holding it out in front of him so Bailey could see, but so that no one else could.
The court heard that as Bailey made contact with the knife the accused believed the blade, which was just more than three inches long, had just been pushed back into the handle.
He said: “I wasn’t going to stab him. I tried to scare him away without even touching him. I thought it (the knife) closed because I could feel it bend back.”
At this point DC Runcie asked the accused why he took weapons to school.
He replied: “I was in possession of the knife because I never fit in. I was just trying to be cool, to look tough, but I wasn’t. I was just trying to be cool.”
The teen, who took a knife and a knuckle duster to school on the day of Bailey’s death, was then asked what he thought would have happened if he had been caught with weapons.
He said: “They would have called the police. Or if they didn’t call the police they would have excluded me for four or five days.”
The court heard the weapons were purchased by the accused online and were delivered to his mum’s garden shed so she would not find out what he had been buying.
He said it was easy to do it this way as he had an account with Amazon and the company did not check how old he was.
He said as he was working five days a week at a fast food restaurant he was able to pay for the goods himself using his debit card.
The accused told officers that he carried weapons with him “every day” to school.
When asked to describe Cults Academy, one of the top non-fee paying schools in the country, the accused said: “A lot of drugs. I think some S1s got lifted for ecstasy. Most of the teachers I like, some of them I do not.
“I know two people took drugs before their exams. Teachers did not notice but everyone else did.
“I have not seen it but I have heard of people getting lifted for it.”
At the end of the interview DC Runcie charged the teenager with murder and asked if he had a reply to the charge.
Fighting back tears he said: “I did try and save him.”