Ann Maguire inquest: 'I don't want to hurt her - I want to kill her', schoolboy murderer told classmates

Will Cornick fatally stabbed Spanish teacher at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds in 2014 and also threatened pregnant tutor Sinead Miley

Ann Maguire (West Yorkshire Police/PA Wire)

A teacher has described how she was “absolutely shocked” when she found out the teenager who murdered Ann Maguire also talked about stabbing her to kill her unborn baby.

The inquest into Mrs Maguire's death has heard that Will Cornick told a number of pupils at Corpus Christi Catholic College, Leeds, that he was going to kill the Spanish teacher and also planned to attack her colleagues Andrew Kellett and Sinead Miley.

A jury at Wakefield Coroner's Court heard how one boy said Cornick told him he was “going to stab Miss Miley in the stomach because she was pregnant and wanted to kill the baby instead”.

On Wednesday, Ms Miley told the jury she was 34 weeks pregnant on the day Mrs Maguire was killed.

She said: “I was absolutely shocked when I realised what had happened with regard to Ann and what he was planning to do with me as well.”

The science teacher, who had also been a pupil at the school, told the court she had taught Cornick in a chemistry lesson in the period immediately before the Spanish lesson in which he stabbed Mrs Maguire on April 28 2014.

Nick Armstrong, representing Mrs Maguire's husband Don and their children, asked Ms Miley about how other pupils in the class had reported conversations with Cornick.

One girl told police he said: “I don't want to hurt her, I want to kill her.”

The girl said Cornick told a group of five or six children in the class he probably would not be allowed to go to the school prom.

She said that when he was asked why, he replied: “You'll probably get it in about two hours.”

The girl said: “I thought he was joking and I didn't understand the joke.”

She said Cornick claimed he had brought a bottle of alcohol with him “to celebrate because I would deserve it afterwards”.

The girl told police: “He was always saying stuff like he would kill her - talking about death and giving people cancer and stuff like that.”

According to Mr Armstrong, the girl also said Cornick talked about “unpleasant things about what he wanted to do to pregnant women”.

Mr Armstrong asked Ms Miley whether she heard any of these exchanges in her class.

The teacher said: “I didn't hear it. If I had heard that, I was a pregnant woman, I would have done something about it.”

Mr Armstrong asked Ms Miley why she thought none of the students reported to staff what Cornick had said, saying this was the “stand-out” issue in the inquest.

She replied that she thought the children believed it was just “bravado” from Cornick.

Ms Miley said: “If these children thought something terrible like that was going to happen they would speak to an adult about it.”

She said Mrs Maguire had taught her when she was a girl and described her as “absolutely amazing”.

PA