A 15-year-old boy stabbed to death his well-loved teacher in front of a roomful of his horrified peers in an “unprecedented event” in a British classroom, police in Leeds said.
Anne Maguire, 61, was brutally attacked by the unnamed boy, who used a kitchen knife to slay the Spanish and Religious Education teacher at Corpus Christi Catholic College on Monday morning.
Maguire spent 40 years teaching at the school and was just months away from retirement, according to the UK’s Independent newspaper.
The brazen murder, reportedly following a series of arguments between the well-performing pupil and the beloved teacher, is considered the first time a student has murdered a teacher in a classroom in Britain.
The startling case has immediately brought comparisons to the London murder of headmaster Philip Lawrence, who was stabbed dead in 1995 outside his school as he tried to break up a scuffle.
Some students told the newspaper that the boy had been drinking before the fatal stabbing. The teen reportedly asked to leave the classroom, before returning minutes later around 11:45 a.m. and stabbing Maguire in the neck and back.
The married mother of two later died at a local hospital while the student was detained and arrested by arriving police.
About 30 students watched the horror unfold.
“She was just lovely,” Kerrianne Ayward, 17, told The Telegraph. “She was helpful and caring and you could have a laugh with her. She was always there for you, even if she didn’t know you very well. No one had a bad word for her – I mean no one. She was the heart of the school.”
The mother figure and school figurehead is survived by her husband of 37 years, Don Maguire, and two daughters: Kerry, 32, an osteopath, and Emma, 30, a ballet dancer, the newspaper reported.
“My thoughts are with the family of Anne Maguire, as well as the staff and pupils of Corpus Christi school, where she was stabbed to death,” UK Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement.
About 1,000 students, between the ages 11 and 16, attend the school, described as having “a strong Christian and community ethos,” according to The Independent.
One student described the suspects as “really clever and always got top grades,” Jacob Hill, 16, told The Telegraph.
He reportedly had a falling out with his father after his parents separated and may have struggled with depression.
“He was very quiet and a bit of a dweeb, but never caused any trouble,” a neighbor told the newspaper. “This is the last thing you would ever have expected from him.”
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