The teacher with a ‘heart of a lioness’ murdered by a pupil with a grudge

The school gates outside Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds were awash with colour in April 2014. Bouquets of flowers blanketed the street and stretched down toward the nearby church.

A young girl, stopping at the school entrance with her two friends, reached up on her tip-toes to tie a bright pink sign to the gates, love hearts drawn across it.

Nearby, a yellow Prefect badge, a small wooden cross and a laminated class photo lay at the school gates. Each item in tribute to a woman named Ann Maguire. 

The 61-year-old schoolteacher, who taught both Spanish and Religious Education, was known as ‘the mother of the school’. Originally from Wigan in Greater Manchester, Ann arrived at Corpus Christi in 1973 to do her teacher training.

She became the ‘heartbeat’ of the small school in the years which followed and routinely went above and beyond for the children she taught.

Anne had two daughters – Kerry and Emma – with her husband, Donald, a former Maths teacher. The couple had also raised Anne’s nephews Daniel and Andrew Poole after the death of their mother, Eileen, Anne’s sister, to cancer aged 35.

She was the mainstay of our family’, Don would later say. ‘Ann was a very loving, dedicated wife and a natural mother and it was her natural mothering qualities, I think, that made Ann such a wonderful teacher.’

Due to retire that autumn, Ann had spent decades guiding young people towards their hopes and dreams. 

But ten years ago, on 28 April, 2014, her life was cut brutally short. 

At 11.45am, as Ann taught a Spanish lesson, 15-year-old Will Cornick calmly got up from his seat, winked to a classmate then stabbed his teacher seven times. 

Children screamed in terror as Ann, with her dying breath, urged them to run. She then fell into the arms of colleague Sue Francis, who later said: ‘I could see cuts on her jumper and lots of bleeding coming out of her neck.

‘She said, “I can’t breathe. I’m dying.” I just kept stroking her and kissing her. She knew she was dying. Her colour was going. The ambulance people arrived, their faces looked like they had walked into some kind of Armageddon.’

Ann was rushed to Leeds General Infirmary where a trauma team awaited her. Doctors carried out resuscitation attempts for 40 minutes before, in the presence of her husband Donald, the decision was made to stop at 1.10pm.

‘This attack came completely out of the blue,’ Detective Superintendent Nick Wallen later explained at the inquest into the 61-year-old’s death. He added: ‘Nobody in the classroom saw this coming. I would say she [Ann] stood absolutely no chance whatsoever.’

Nuns based at Corpus Christi Church, the Catholic church opposite the school, comforted pupils in the aftermath of the killing. Police were stationed on nearby streets as hundreds of pupils, past and present, gathered to leave tributes to the slain teacher. 

Soon, the authorities discovered the attack had come from Cornick’s ‘irrational, smouldering hatred’ for Ann. He had a ‘deep-seated grudge’, but refused to explain the exact reason why to detectives.

During the inquest, it emerged Cornick had told at least 10 classmates about his desire to kill his teacher. But the murderer’s ‘dark sense of humour’ meant his peers didn’t take the plan seriously. On Christmas Eve 2013, four months before Ann’s murder, Cornick had texted a friend: ‘So If I kill Maguire on Tuesday in school will you bail me out?’

One pupil did eventually report his threats to the school, on the day of Ann’s death no less, but Wakefield Coroner’s Court was later told the warning came ‘too late’ for action to be taken.

Cornick pleaded guilty to the murder in November 2014.

Sentencing the teenager to life in jail, with a minimum term of 20 years, prosecutor Paul Greaney QC said the 15-year-old’s life had been ‘marked by love and support.’ To Cornick’s parents, Ian and Michelle, his sudden burst of violence was a mystery.

Mr Greaney told the court: ‘It is important that we should record that it is clear from the evidence that the parents of (the boy) are decent people and responsible parents.

‘They are at a loss to understand how and why their son has turned out as he has and they have co-operated fully with the police and with the prosecution.’

In the weeks following Ann’s murder, the topic of school safety was fiercely debated. There were discussions on the potential use of metal detectors to clamp down on knives, and parents spoke in hushed whispers over whether their children needed better protection. 

And the story of 48-year-old Philip Lawrence, killed in 1995, was revisited in the wake of Ann’s death. Headteacher Philip had been stabbed to death at the gates of St. George’s Roman Catholic School in Maida Vale, London, when he tried to break up a fight.

In a horrific twist, Philip’s killer Learco Chindamo –  who like Cornick was just 15 when he committed his crime – had been released from prison just days after Ann’s murder. 

Ann was the first teacher in the UK to be killed in a classroom, and the attacks haven’t stopped since.

In 2017, a 16-year-old girl stabbed welfare officer Joy Simon at Winterton Community Academy, near Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. The mother-of-two had been alone in her office when the teenager burst in and attacked her with a kitchen knife. Joy ‘probably would have killed’ if the pupil – who had suffered with depression – hadn’t been restrained by two teachers, a court later heard.

In September of 2023, teacher Jamie Sansom was stabbed by a 15-year-old boy at Tewkesbury academy in Gloucestershire. The teenager had, like Cornick, told friends he wanted to kill somebody.

The same year, a ‘horrifying hammer attack’ was carried out on a teacher and students at Blundell’s School in Tiverton. Housemaster Henry-Roffe Silvester, who was 38 at the time, said the pupil’s expression during the attack was ‘neutral and unsettling’.

And, just this week, a teenage girl was charged with attempted murder after assistant headteacher Fiona Elias, additional learning needs coordinator Liz Hopkins and an unnamed pupil were stabbed at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire.

Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary of NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, said ‘radical change’ was needed after Ann Maguire’s death in 2014, and is still needed now for teachers in 2024.

‘The unfortunate truth is that teachers remain as much at risk of violence in the classroom as they did years ago’, he tells Metro.

Dr Roach pointed to the Behaviour in Schools report, conducted in September 2023, brought together responses from more than 6500 UK teachers.

It found that 37% of respondents had experienced physical abuse or violence from pupils in the last 12 months, while 90% reported verbal abuse or violence from pupils. What’s more, 89% feel the number of pupils exhibiting violent and abusive behaviours has increased.

Meanwhile, 38.5% of teachers said they were shoved or barged by a pupil in the last year, with 14% had been hit or punched.

Dr Roach adds: ‘Teachers told us that verbal and physical violence are now just “part of the job.” We cannot hope to retain our skilled and passionate teachers if that continues to be the case.

‘Teachers are not there to serve as punch bags, bodyguards or referees, yet they are increasingly expected to tolerate dangerous behaviour in the classroom. 

‘When it comes to dealing with the systemic causes of adverse pupil behaviour, we need to see a radical change of approach from the Government to deliver better support for those working on the front line.’

When contacted, a spokesman from the Department for Education explained various steps taken to improve teacher safety in the UK. Measures implemented include a ban on mobile phones to ‘reduce disruption’ and the creation of a £10m Behaviour Hubs programme to support up to 700 schools.

A spokesman told Metro: ‘No teacher should feel unsafe or face violence in the workplace. We are taking action to improve pupils’ behaviour to ensure all schools are calm, safe, and supportive environments.’

In the wake of Ann Maguire’s death in 2014, there have been changes in the classroom, but also progress on a wider societal level. Her family ensured her name would forever be synonymous with helping young people.

The Ann Maguire Arts Educational Fund, set up in May 2014, has provided bursaries and funding through music, drama, language and dance – all subjects that were close to Ann’s heart.

To her family, Ann will be remembered as ‘an indestructible force who never let us down’.

At a memorial service in September 2014, held at Leeds Town Hall, nephew Daniel had told the crowds: ‘There was never an occasion when you didn’t go the extra mile – and then 20 more – for any of us. There was never a time when you didn’t have time. And I think that’s why so many people are here today. Because they know you went the extra mile for them too, at some point.

‘Maybe it was a five-minute chat or extra help with homework; a shoulder to cry on, some words of encouragement, an unexpected visit or a night of singing until the early hours. We all delivered our problems on to your shoulders, thinking you were an indestructible force who never let us down.

‘As a child, looking at his mother, you were 10ft tall and made of steel.  You weren’t, of course. You were a very content 5ft 3in with the warmth of a loving mother and the heart of a lioness.’

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Kirsten.Robertson@metro.co.uk 

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