A kind, caring youngster whose dream was to join the Marines
TOWERING over his classmates, young Bailey Gwynne was a fitness fanatic who dreamed of one day joining the Royal Marines.
But there was not a hint of aggression about him, according to his friends.
Not until lunchtime of October 28 last year, when a fellow pupil made an i nsulting remark about his mother, had he been seen even to lay a finger on another pupil.
As one 16-year- old put it, Bailey was known not to be a fighter. Given that he was 6ft 1in and weighed 12 and a half stone, that was surely a matter of relief to his classmates.
Yet, on the one occasion where he lost his temper, he paid for it with his life.
For he found himself in a fight with a smaller, weaker boy who routinely
‘A sense of disbelief that it was him’
took a knife to school and – shockingly – was prepared to use it.
Described in court by prosecutor Alex Prentice as a ‘soft, caring boy’, Bailey lived with his mother Kate Gwynne, her partner John Henderson and his four younger brothers in Maryculter, Aberdeenshire.
His headteacher Anna Muirhead said he arrived at Cults Academy towards the end of first year and, to begin with, had been a bit of a loner. ‘It’s often hard to make friends when everyone else is already in friendship groups,’ she said.
Gradually, however, Bailey found his set and began to ‘thrive’.
One friend from his year said Bailey was perhaps best known for being a fitness fan. He said: ‘He was a big guy that just loved going to the gym and kept to himself.’
Another youngster, Rachael Summers, 18, said she had been in the same business management class as Bailey.
She added: ‘I spoke to him a few times during class projects. I thought he was quite a shy guy. He hung about by himself a little bit, and when you hear the news you think, why would this happen to such an innocent guy?’
If there was a criticism of the teenager, it was perhaps that he appeared unsympathetic to those with weight problems. Friends said they had occasionally heard him comment on other pupils’ weight during break times.
It was a silly row over exactly this issue which caused the fight that led to his death.
Yet there was a sense of disbelief in the school that, of all people, it was Bailey who had been involved in the fight.
One friend said: ‘ When I came back into school at lunchtime I saw a trail of blood in the corridor. It was just a shock when we heard it was him. He was just so quiet. We were as shocked as everyone else.’
Another said: ‘He was quite warm and he wouldn’t ever say anything against you. He was always there, and it was kind of reassuring knowing he was there.’
To his family, meanwhile, Bailey was the ‘ beloved boy’ who ‘ never failed to make us smile’.
In a statement issued shortly after his death, his family said: ‘We don’t know what we will do without our junior “man about the house”.’
On the evening of his death, a candlelit vigil was attended by hundreds from a community shocked to its core by what had happened in the corridor of one of Scotland’s top state schools. One message dedicated to the teenager who had often talked of becoming a Marine said, simply: ‘Soldier on, soldier.’
Yesterday, as his killer was convicted of culpable homicide, Detective Superintendent David McLaren paid tribute to the family who attended the trial every day and sat t hrough t he most searing of evidence.
He said: ‘Today won’t bring their son back, the pain of not having Bailey around will last for a very long time. Throughout their ordeal they have conducted themselves with the utmost dignity and are a credit to themselves as a family.
‘The death of Bailey Gwynne has had a massive impact on his family, friends, fellow pupils and the staff at Cults Academy.
‘ The details of the case have caused shock within the local community and further afield across the whole of the country.’