Pupils not quizzed about plans of teacher’s killer

NONE of the children who heard Will Cornick boast that he was going to kill Spanish teacher Ann Maquire has ever been quizzed about why they did not tell anyone.

The inquest into Mrs Maguire’s death heard how, in the lessons immediately before the tragedy, Cornick told 10 other pupils what he was going to to the teacher and also his plan to kill other members of staff.

He showed four children the 34in knife on that morning, told some of them of his plan a couple of days before the attack and, months before the stabbing, he exchanged Facebook messages with one of his friends expressing his loathing for the 61-year-old teacher and offering “a tenner” to kill her.

But none of these children told a member of staff about any of this before Mrs Maguire was murdered.

Since then, none have ever been asked why they did not disclose this information – including in the inquest which finished on Tuesday.

Det Supt Nick Wallen, who led the murder inquiry for West Yorkshire Police, told the inquest he was so concerned that these children may feel like they were being blamed for the tragedy that he specifically instructed his detectives not to ask them why they had not immediately reported Cornick’s chilling boasts.

And the school’s headteacher Steve Mort told the week-long hearing that he also never asked the children the same question, adding he was unaware of the full extent of the disclosures Cornick made to his schoolmates on April 28, 2014, until pre-inquest hearings earlier this year.

Coroner Kevin McLoughlin decided the children should not be brought to court to be questioned because it would be too traumatic.