Wednesday, October 28, began like any other day at Cults Academy. Just “a normal day”, according to Anna Muirhead, the head teacher. It ended in tragedy, the death of a schoolboy over lunchtime. Yesterday was the first day of the trial of a teenager for his murder.
So much of the visual evidence presented in the first few hours of the case would be instantly recognisable to parents and children all over the country. Thirty photographs and four panoramas presented what could have been a normal school interior.
There were the bins, put in place by the Cults “recycling team”; there were lockers, communal areas, a plasma TV to broadcast important information, and all the other accoutrements expected in a well-run school. But in the pictures, all these things were surrounded by police tape.
Without once speaking of her own shock, Ms Muirhead described the humdrum events of the morning. It began with the early informal meeting with her “SMT”— senior management team — and their expectations of the day ahead.
“It was a horrible, dreich day,” and the senior staff agreed that the school would be busy at lunchtime.
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When the bell went for lunch, the head teacher helped to distribute packed lunches. Later she went to keep her eye on a group of second-year pupils, and then, returning along an area of the school called “The Street”, she “clocked” the accused with a group of six or eight friends, hanging around near the toilets, where they habitually stood.
Ms Muirhead returned to her office but within minutes the school’s office administrator “put her head round the door” and said: “Anna, there’s been a fight. It looks serious. We’ve called an ambulance.”
Ms Muirhead rushed towards the scene of the fight and quickly encountered both the victim and his assailant, who had been brought down by a teacher towards the school offices. The accused was slumped in a chair.
The accused “was sitting side on to the seat, he was slightly curled up”, Ms Muirhead recalled. “He was obviously distraught or upset.” She called his name. “He indicated with his head and hand, ‘That was me, that was my fault,’ ” she recalled.
“I took about one step and I saw Bailey lying on the ground under the television screen and various members of staff around him. I knew instantly that it was very serious.”
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Bailey Gwynne was very pale, his shirt was open, and Ms Muirhead could see blood. After the paramedic had arrived, she turned to the accused. She said: “You better come with me.” Ms Muirhead continued: “He was very agitated. He said, ‘Just take me to the police.’ I said, ‘The police aren’t here yet.’ ” She walked him to the depute head teacher’s office, and left him there.
Ms Muirhead, 57, a teacher of more than 20 years’ experience, said it had been made clear that knives should never be brought into school. “Teenagers can get het up . . . they can get overexcited,” Ms Muirhead said. “A knife to hand would be a temptation.” She said she had spoken to the accused when he was in first year, or early second year, emphasising the school’s policy on the possession of knives.
The next witness was the first of more than a dozen teenagers who are expected to be called. Where the head teacher had remained composed, the boy quickly gave way to his emotions.
The judge, Lady Stacey, advised he should sit down to give his evidence, but when he broke down in sobs, she was obliged to adjourn the court. When he returned, a box of paper handkerchiefs had appeared on the stand beside him.