On a cold morning at the start of February, 15-year-old Harvey Willgoose got himself out of bed and dressed for school. He had not been for a while, but had built himself up to it.
“He went: ‘I’m going to school, Mum, are you proud of me?’,” says Caroline Willgoose, nursing a cup of tea at her cousin’s kitchen table. “I said: ‘I am love.’ I followed him down. And he said: ‘I love you mum. Shut door behind me.’”
Hours later, Harvey was stabbed at All Saints Catholic high school in Sheffield. He was rushed to hospital, but by the time his family arrived, he was already dead. On Friday, a 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons and who had pleaded guilty to Harvey’s manslaughter, was found guilty of his murder. A judge will decide his sentence at a later date.
“He’s killed Harvey, but he’s killed us too,” says Harvey’s dad, Mark Willgoose. “It’s not just one life.” Caroline says she feels no hate for her son’s killer or for his parents. In an early hearing, she looked at him in court. “He just looked like a kid,” she says. “And his parents have got an empty bedroom too, haven’t they. He’s ruined his life.”
Months after Harvey’s death, the grief of his parents and his doting nanan, Maria Turner, is still palpable and raw. But they want to talk about him: what a special boy he was, how loved he was; about young people’s pain and the devastation of knife crime. But they also want to talk about Harvey’s struggles with school and how they have been left carrying an unfathomable burden of guilt for forcing him to go.
Harvey was someone “who made you feel good”, says his grandmother. Despite being only 15, he was a Sheffield character, well known among Sheffield United fans, who he followed home and away. He was a joker, who would – rightly, it appears – claim he was a local legend. “He wanted to cram everything in,” says Caroline. “And I’m glad. I’m glad he did.”
After Harvey was killed, a wave of grief enveloped the city. Hundreds marched in his memory, while Blades fans could be heard chanting his name from the stands of Bramall Lane. Fans of rival club Sheffield Wednesday did the same as they travelled to an away match. His funeral at Sheffield Cathedral was packed to the rafters. “There were all these kids in suits, chanting ‘Goose’s army, Goose’s army’,” says Caroline. “I’ll never forget it, this wave of hundreds and hundreds of kids in suits, shouting his name.”
In the weeks and months after his death, the Willgoose family have been busy making sure Harvey’s name will not be forgotten. They are setting up Harvey’s Hub, a dedicated youth night at Beighton welfare club where Caroline works with the youth charity Always An Alternative (AAA). A poster campaign giving children a place to anonymously flag danger through a QR code is in the offing. Caroline wants to visit schools to talk about her family’s story and ask them to consider installing knife arches – whatever it takes to keep children safe. “We need more education about knife crime,” she says. “More talking about the devastation that it brings.”
The family has also met the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, and urged her to do more for struggling teenagers: whether by providing spaces for them to socialise, safety from knives or – for teenagers like Harvey – other choices for when school is making them miserable and ill.
It is a problem that has clearly caused them so much pain. Harvey was one of about 1.49 million children – approximately one in five pupils – who were persistently absent from school in 2023-24. He wanted to be a bricklayer, he he had been trying to get a job – and had been offered one – but he was too young.
“The only time we argued was about school. It was just a constant battleground,” says Caroline. “We were all so miserable.”
He told his parents and his grandmother that it wasn’t that he didn’t want to go; he couldn’t. They describe a child clearly struggling with unhappiness. Blocking out the voices of people sent to try to get him to attend school, trying to force himself to go by staying up all night. He was given a leaflet about mental health, they say. He was not on a waiting list for mental health support.
The couple were threatened with prosecution and fines if they did not get him to All Saints – Harvey was asked if that was what he wanted. They said they had asked for alternative provision, but were told it would not work. “We engaged with the people who we were told to engage with, we were guided by them and we did everything they asked,” says Mark.
Everyone they were in touch with made them feel as if they were the only ones, says his grandmother. “I really can’t believe that we took it all,” she says. “We feel so guilty.” Since Harvey’s death, Caroline posted on social media, asking if other parents were suffering too. Hundreds of parents got in touch to say they were going through the same thing.
The family want the government to explore more pragmatic, alternate provisions for children like Harvey. “School, as it is, is not for everybody,” says Caroline. “There should be something else in place for the kids that can’t go.” Forcing children, threatening them and their parents simply won’t work, says her husband. “You’ve got to get to the bottom of why.”
Mark says he wants Harvey to be remembered as someone who “had a short life, but a good life”. Caroline thinks his legacy is already being put in place. “I think Harvey was put here for a reason, to change things,” she says. “He was put here for a reason, because he was special.”
