But, as Mrs Maguire’s devastated husband Don eloquently spoke of the void left by her fatal stabbing, it was revealed that the worst he had seen.
Cornick stabbed the teacher to death in front of horrified classmates in April this year – winking at one before he struck. With chilling calmness, he then strolled back to his desk, saying to shocked pupils: ‘Good times.’
His rampage was stopped only by the heroic actions of a female teacher, who dragged Mrs Maguire away from him as pupils fled screaming.
Since the murder, Cornick, now 16, has shown a terrifying lack of remorse – even boasting that he is ‘proud’ of the murder and didn’t ‘give a s***’ about Mrs Maguire’s family.
After the murder he told a psychiatrist: ‘I wasn’t in shock, I was happy. I had a sense of pride. I still do.
‘I know it’s uncivilised but I know it’s incredibly instinctual and human. Past generations of life, killing is a route of survival. It’s kill or be killed. I did not have a choice. It was kill her or suicide.’
Police and prosecutors said there was nothing the school could have done to stop the ‘inexplicable’ attack – saying there had been nothing to suggest the intelligent, middle class pupil who came from a ‘decent’ and loving family had been capable of ‘homicidal violence.’
But the court was told of a string of warnings that Cornick’s hatred was spiralling out of control in the months leading up to the murder.
Last night Leeds City Council refused to answer any detailed questions about the case.
Paul Greaney, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court the calculating teenager was setting up a psychiatric defence to the crime he already intended to commit.
Then, in February, Mrs Maguire banned Cornick from a school bowling trip because he had not done his Spanish homework.
He defied the order not to go and his parents were called in for a meeting at which the teenager ‘made plain that he hated Mrs Maguire’.
Cornick was then made to work on his own in school for the day as punishment.
Source: Uk Daily Mail