Teacher quizzed over pupil attack (From Banbury Cake)

Teacher quizzed over pupil attack

6:18pm Thursday 9th July 2009

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A science teacher is being questioned over the attempted murder of a schoolboy who suffered serious head injuries in a classroom attack.

Peter Harvey is also being quizzed about allegedly assaulting two of the 14-year-old boy's classmates during the same incident at All Saints' Roman Catholic School in Mansfield on Wednesday.

Officers were called to the school in Broomhill Lane after paramedics arrived to find Jack Waterhouse unconscious in a pool of blood at the entrance to a classroom in its science block.

The 49-year-old teacher, who is local to the area, was arrested shortly afterwards and remains in custody at Mansfield police station.

Detectives have until 8.15pm on Friday to question Harvey when they will either have to release him, charge him or ask for a time extension so they can quiz him further.

There were more than 20 students in the classroom at about 11am on Wednesday when it appears a row erupted between the boy and the science teacher during a lesson.

According to parents, Harvey allegedly "snapped", lashing out at Jack with a weight used to teach science.

The youngster was taken from the blood-spattered classroom to the Kings Mill Hospital in Mansfield, where his condition deteriorated.

On Wednesday afternoon he was transferred to a specialist head injury unit at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham. Police said there was grave concern for his life but his condition has since stabilised. He has not yet undergone surgery and his parents are at his bedside, Nottinghamshire Police said.

Another boy and a girl, both 14 and in the youngster's Year 9 class, were recovering at home after allegedly being assaulted during the same incident. They did not need hospital treatment. Police refused to say whether they were injured after leaping to their classmate's defence.

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