Friends of Harvey Willgoose tell of 'massive' impact of stabbing

Friends of murdered teenager Harvey Willgoose say their lives have been "broken" since his death.

Harvey, 15, was stabbed by Mohammed Umar Khan in front of children and teachers at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield in February 2025.

Khan, also 15, was found guilty of murder and detained for a minimum of 16 years.

A year on from Khan's sentencing, his friends say their lives will never be the same again.

Khan stabbed Harvey through the heart with a hunting knife during a school lunch break on 3 February 2025.

Khan was in Year Nine when he stabbed Harvey, who was his former friend, in the school courtyard after the two teenagers had quarrelled over social media in the days beforehand.

Harvey's school friend Lleyton was in the cafeteria at school on the day of the attack.

"We were going to go and get something to eat from the cafeteria," he says.

"And next minute, you know, people are shouting, 'someone's being stabbed, someone's being stabbed'.

"And then all of a sudden people are running towards me, screaming, shouting, they didn't know what to do.

"I didn't know what to do.

"I felt like my legs couldn't move. I was just frozen.

"People are saying that someone's been stabbed and that something's happened and we never really knew who."

Lleyton, who is now 18, says Harvey's death has had a "massive effect" on him.

They had been friends since they met travelling to school on the tram.

"Knowing that something could happen to someone like that, it's horrible.

"I try to avoid going to parties and going out out properly... (I'm) being a bit careful and different, not speaking as much, being careful who I speak to."

Harvey was 14-year-old Lana's cousin. They spent family Christmases and holidays together.

Lana says they were "inseparable, like siblings" and spoke most days even when she moved away from Sheffield.

She says she "just couldn't really process" Harvey's death and "I don't even think I still can process it now".

Knowing that Harvey was stabbed on school premises left her "feeling unsafe", she says.

She didn't go to the same school as Harvey but after his death found it difficult to go to school herself.

"I couldn't really go. I used to always tell Harvey to go to school and then it became me who didn't go to school."

She says she has now returned to lessons.

Nineteen-year-old Kaiya met Harvey through mutual friends three years ago.

They quickly became close, and she says he was her "best friend".

She says he was outgoing and protective and she "felt like she'd known him forever".

Harvey was a Sheffield United fan and he took Kaiya to matches but since his death she no longer attends.

She says she is now "very wary about going out by myself because anything could happen so I choose to go out in a big group of people".

She says losing Harvey to knife crime was a shock.

"I'd see it on the news and I'd think, 'that's never going to happen to anyone close to me'".

Kaiya is urging young people who carry knives to think again because "it's not worth it".

She says: "That one little bit of anger is not worth taking someone's life for because it doesn't only affect you.

"It affects everyone around you."

It was confirmed last week a full inquest would be held into Harvey's death, after a coroner reversed an earlier decision not to resume her investigation.

A date for the inquest is yet to be fixed.

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