Floral tributes have been left outside Corpus Christi College in Leeds where teacher Anne Maguire was killed. Picture courtesy of The Daily Post

On Monday 3 November, Will Cornick, 16, given a life sentence for the murder of his teacher Ann Maguire, who was killed in April of this year.

Cornick, from Leeds, who was 15 at the time, stabbed Mrs. Maguire seven times whilst her back was turned in a classroom. He then sat back down in the classroom and said “good times”. It also transpired that Cornick had brought a bottle of Jack Daniel’s to celebrate his heinous crime.

Cornick had been planning the attack for up to three years before he slaughtered Mrs. Maguire, even posting on Facebook how she “deserved more than death… more than pain”.

He finally killed her just months before she was due to retire. In the run up to her retirement she began working four days a week and was only in on the day she was murdered to help students prepare for their GCSE exam.

Cornick initially planned a killing spree with Mrs. Maguire as the first victim. He also planned to attack both Andrew Kellett, a senior member of staff, and Sinéad Miley, a teacher who was pregnant and on maternity leave at the time of Cornick’s attack. Both survived the ordeal.

Judge Coulson, presiding over the trial, observed that Cornick showed a “chilling lack of remorse” for his actions. Paul Greaney QC, prosecuting, said that Cornick’s parents were at a loss to why their son had turned out like this. His parents have condemned their son’s crimes and have fully cooperated with the police investigation.

Will Cornick will now spend the rest of his life in prison. Picture courtesy of The Guardian

Prior to the attack, Cornick had been a model pupil; diligent, cheerful, a credit to his school. Yet after he was diagnosed with diabetes and watched his dreams of an army career slipping away, he began to show the attributes which would lead him to commit murder. His parents noticed that he was self-harming and his peers noticed a change in his behaviour.

He began a campaign against Maguire, who was loved by both teachers and pupils alike at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds. Ann Maguire had taught at the school for 40 years, gaining her a reputation as mother of the school – a testimony which was read out at her funeral service.

His campaign against Sinéad Miley was based in his desire to stab her in the stomach and kill her unborn child. Other than that, there appeared no clear motivation for his wish to murder Miley, or any motivation to kill Andrew Kellett, his other target.

The pure reason, it seems, that Cornick targeted these innocent people was merely to express his frustration. Cornick will now spend the remainder of his life behind bars for the murder of Ann Maguire, who truly was in the wrong place at the wrong time.