Scissor-attack pupil cleared (From Gazette Series)

Scissor-attack pupil cleared

A 16-YEAR-OLD schoolboy found guilty of throwing a pair of scissors at his maths teacher has been cleared on appeal.

In February, South Gloucestershire Magistrates at Stroud convicted the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, of assault causing actual bodily harm and sentenced him to a 12-hour reparation order.

But last Friday the boy cleared his name when Gloucester Crown Court upheld his appeal and granted him a defendant's costs order.

Recorder Christopher Moger QC said the court was in no doubt that the teacher's injury was caused by someone throwing scissors at her but there was only circumstantial evidence against the boy.

During a two-day trial the court heard how a female teacher suffered a gaping head wound which gushed with blood when she was hit just above the eye with a pair of scissors.

The incident had taken place in a secondary school, in the south of Gloucestershire, on the first day of the new school year, September 2, 2004.

Although the accused had been seen playing with a pair of red-handled school scissors shortly before the incident no other pupils in the classroom of 21 actually saw who threw them, the court heard.

The defendant had allegedly been seen "making a dart-like throwing movement towards the teacher", said Nadeem Aullybocus, prosecuting.

"A few seconds later there was screaming and something hit the teacher just above the left eye."

However, the boy said he had picked up the scissors and twirled them around out of boredom but claimed he was reading a magazine when the scissors were thrown.

"I looked up and saw blood and my immediate reaction was to run and get help," he told the court.

Despite running to the secretary's office for help the boy was later arrested.

Under cross examination, the boy denied that he disliked the teacher.

The teenager was permanently excluded from the school as a result of the incident - a decision the headteacher defended this week.

"The boy was permanently excluded and as a school we were not interested in taking it any further. That was the Crown Prosecution Services' decision.

"I believed at the time, through the balance of probability, the boy had thrown the scissors. However, in a court of law the level of proof has to be much higher.

"My concern at the time was the welfare and safety of my pupils and staff. Nothing like this has happened at the school since."