Teacher hit pupil with dumbbell

Prosecutor Stuart Rafferty told the court Harvey was “in a positive frame of mind” on the morning of the attack.

He said: “A girl who had behaviour difficulties was messing about with a whiteboard and then started messing about with a window blind.
“He told her to stop. He seems to have pulled her away from the window by her bag on her shoulder and it was alleged he kicked her.  She left the classroom in tears and some of the class took exception and started calling him a psycho. He didn’t respond and told the class to get on with their work.
“Then a boy (the victim) began to mess about with a metre rule. He was wandering about, sword fighting with pupils.

Rafferty added: “He told him to put it down and he did. The boy then took out a metal bunsen burner stand and was waving it about in a similar way.
“Harvey chased him around the classroom and it came to a point when the boy told him to ‘fuck off’. Harvey grabbed him by his collar and started dragging him out of the classroom. He got him down the corridor into a preparation room.
“He threw him to the ground and armed himself with a 3kg dumbbell and began to hit the boy about the head with it. He struck at least two blows to the head which caused serious injury. At the time the blows were being struck, Harvey was only heard to say ‘die, die, die’.”

The court heard that one pupil tried to drag Harvey off the boy. He was kneeling above him, raising the dumbbell to shoulder height for each of the blows. The boy was left with a fractured right temple bone and severe cuts to his head.
The trial continues.