Teacher to be sentenced for attacking boy

A teacher who snapped and attacked a 14-year-old pupil who was goading him will be sentenced today.

Peter Harvey, 50, attacked the schoolboy at All Saints' Roman Catholic School in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, on July 8 of last year with a 3kg dumbbell after repeatedly being taunted by pupils in his science class.

Last month, a jury at Nottingham Crown Court took just an hour to clear Harvey of attempting to murder the boy or intending to cause him serious injury.

The married father-of-two, who admitted causing grievous bodily harm without intent, bludgeoned the boy with the dumbbell while shouting "die, die, die".

But the jury accepted his barrister's claims that his pupils had driven him over the edge and he did not know what he was doing when the youngster, now 15 and a known trouble-maker, told him to "f*** off".

It emerged during the four-day trial that pupils in the Year 9 science class were trying to wind up Harvey so his reaction could be caught on a camcorder being used secretly by a girl in the class.

The footage was then to be passed around the school as a way of "humiliating" Harvey.

Harvey will be sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court today but is likely to be given a community order.

After the verdict last month, Judge Michael Stokes QC said the jury's finding that he had not intended to harm the boy meant "common sense had prevailed".

He said the teacher would not face jail as he had already served eight months in prison awaiting trial.

He told him: "I'm not going to send you to prison for this offence. I'm not even going to impose a suspended sentence.

"That would be wrong given that you have already served a sentence longer than can be lawfully suspended.

"This court is looking to impose a community order which will assist you with the problems that you have had."