A “fundamentally decent†teacher who fractured the skull of a badly behaved 14-year-old pupil with a dumbbell escaped a prison sentence yesterday.
Peter Harvey, 50, who hit the boy with a 3kg weight while shouting, ‘Die, die, die’, and had been taunted by teenagers in his science class, was given a two-year community order.
Last month a jury at Nottingham Crown Court took just one hour to clear the married father of two of attempted murder after he had admitted the lesser charge of grievous bodily harm.
The teacher had been targeted by pupils at All Saints Roman Catholic School in Mansfield because they knew he had been off work for four months with stress and depression.
The court heard that he had not known what he was doing at the time of the attack and had “snapped†when the boy, now 15 and a known troublemaker, told him to ‘f*** off’ as school friends secretly filmed his antics on a camcorder. They planned to show the recording of the physics teacher’s humiliation to other pupils.
At the time Judge Michael Stokes QC said the verdicts meant “common sense had prevailedâ€. The teacher had already served eight months in prison awaiting trial.
School CCTV footage showing the attack was released by the Crown Prosecution Service after Harvey was cleared of trying to kill the boy.
It shows him chasing the boy into the corridor before dragging him into a storeroom where he hit him before another teacher intervened.
Harvey was a respected teacher with a 20-year career.
Sentencing him, the judge said: “On any view this is a tragic case. You are a thoroughly decent man and for well over 20 years you have been a dedicated and successful school teacher.
“The incident involving the 14-year-old boy whom you assaulted was brought about, I have no doubt, by a number of factors combining together and producing in you a quite disproportionate reaction to misbehaviour, abuse and rank disobedience by him and some of his classmates.
“In previous years you would have handled this easily and professionally but in July of last year you were far from well.
“You were undoubtedly suffering from depression, stress and a serious lack of confidence.â€
Throughout the hearing Harvey stared ahead in the dock. He was supported in the public gallery by members of his family, including his wife, Samantha.
A keen singer, church-goer and a father of two teenage daughters, one of whom has Asperger’s Syndrome, he would regularly take part in school plays and once grew a beard so he could perform as Mr Bumble in Oliver Twist.
Former pupils described him as a “charismatic†teacher who cared deeply about his students.
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How long until the "human rights" lobby pick up on this one...
Peter Harvey, 50, who hit the boy with a 3kg weight while shouting, ‘Die, die, die’, and had been taunted by teenagers in his science class, was given a two-year community order.
Last month a jury at Nottingham Crown Court took just one hour to clear the married father of two of attempted murder after he had admitted the lesser charge of grievous bodily harm.
The teacher had been targeted by pupils at All Saints Roman Catholic School in Mansfield because they knew he had been off work for four months with stress and depression.
The court heard that he had not known what he was doing at the time of the attack and had “snapped†when the boy, now 15 and a known troublemaker, told him to ‘f*** off’ as school friends secretly filmed his antics on a camcorder. They planned to show the recording of the physics teacher’s humiliation to other pupils.
At the time Judge Michael Stokes QC said the verdicts meant “common sense had prevailedâ€. The teacher had already served eight months in prison awaiting trial.
School CCTV footage showing the attack was released by the Crown Prosecution Service after Harvey was cleared of trying to kill the boy.
It shows him chasing the boy into the corridor before dragging him into a storeroom where he hit him before another teacher intervened.
Harvey was a respected teacher with a 20-year career.
Sentencing him, the judge said: “On any view this is a tragic case. You are a thoroughly decent man and for well over 20 years you have been a dedicated and successful school teacher.
“The incident involving the 14-year-old boy whom you assaulted was brought about, I have no doubt, by a number of factors combining together and producing in you a quite disproportionate reaction to misbehaviour, abuse and rank disobedience by him and some of his classmates.
“In previous years you would have handled this easily and professionally but in July of last year you were far from well.
“You were undoubtedly suffering from depression, stress and a serious lack of confidence.â€
Throughout the hearing Harvey stared ahead in the dock. He was supported in the public gallery by members of his family, including his wife, Samantha.
A keen singer, church-goer and a father of two teenage daughters, one of whom has Asperger’s Syndrome, he would regularly take part in school plays and once grew a beard so he could perform as Mr Bumble in Oliver Twist.
Former pupils described him as a “charismatic†teacher who cared deeply about his students.
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How long until the "human rights" lobby pick up on this one...
