A 16-year-old teenager who murdered a fellow pupil inside a school in Lincolnshire, eastern England was detained for life today.
Alan Pennell was only 15 when he stabbed 14-year-old Luke Walmsley through the heart outside a classroom at Birkbeck School in North Somercotes last November.
Teachers had frantically tried to give first aid to Walmsley but the youngster died within hours of the attack after being airlifted to hospital.
Pennell had denied murder, telling Nottingham Crown Court the stabbing had been an accident and that the knife was only intended to scare Walmsley.
But the court heard that hostility between the two boys had been brewing for some time. Several witnesses spoke of the boy making threats against Walmsley and brandishing a knife at school.
Yesterday the court found Pennell guilty of murder, and on Tuesday sentenced him to be detained for life, with a recommendation he serve a minimum of 12 years.
The court also lifted reporting restrictions which had banned Pennell being identified because of his young age.
After the verdict Walmsley's mother Jayne said justice had been done but nothing would bring her son back.
"On that day in November last year, Luke's future - our future - was needlessly and so cruelly and maliciously taken away," she told reporters.
"That boy convicted of killing him today still has some form of life in front of him. Luke has not."
Walmsley's death revived memories of another fatal stabbing which shocked Britain and prompted calls for improved security at schools.
In 1995, head teacher Philip Lawrence was killed outside his London school as he tried to protect a pupil who was being assaulted.