Boy yells ‘it is the beast’ throughout college hammer assault after Yorkshire Ripper search

A 15-year-old boy smuggled a hammer and axe into his Nottingham school before launching a brutal attack on a fellow student, leaving the victim with a fractured skull

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A 15-year-old smuggled a hammer and axe into his school before launching a vicious assault on a fellow pupil in front of horrified classmates. Nottingham Crown Court was told how the teenager yelled “It is not me, it is the beast” as other students watched him retrieve the hammer from his bag and strike it down on his young victim’s head.

Just two hours before the attack, the youth had searched for a TikTok video of mass killer Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper. After wielding the weapon, he then fled the classroom brandishing it above his head before being tackled and disarmed by two teachers.

The boy he assaulted suffered a fractured skull, and “concerning” messages later found on his attacker’s phone included threats to “hurt so many people” and “kill the rest”, reports Nottinghamshire Live.

Sentencing him to a young offender’s institution for two years and four months, Judge Nirmal Shant KC said: “This is a case where you had planned this attack for many months – there was a significant level of premeditation.

“You took a weapon into the school and you chose to use it in a classroom in front of other students and a teacher, many of whom have been affected.

“You struck (the victim) more than once, you had previously Googled for Peter Sutcliffe and on the day of this offence, at 7am, you viewed a TikTok of Peter Sutcliffe.”

Stephen Kemp, prosecuting, revealed the attack occurred at Redhill Academy in Arnold on January 20, last year. He explained that the teenager, whose identity is legally protected, was seated beside his victim, leaned backwards to position himself “out of his peripheral vision”, retrieved the hammer from his bag and struck him twice in the head with it.

The prosecutor revealed: “One of the pupils described him ‘using as much force as possible’ and he was also described as screaming with each blow saying words to the effect of ‘it’s not me it’s the beast’ making reference to voices in his head.

“Having hit the victim he then fled from the classroom waving the hammer as he ran through the school grounds.

“He was eventually stopped by two teachers on the school grounds.”

Mr Kemp presented CCTV footage of the attack’s aftermath which captured the defendant racing through the grounds before being halted, disarmed and taken into a room.

He noted that police were summoned and arrested the boy, who remained silent during two interviews when questioned about his motives.

The prosecutor stated: “His phone was seized and analysed and messages between him and other people (dating back to November, 2024) include him saying ‘should have brought a hammer and just gone crazy’ and one on December 27 when the school was not open, saying ‘I am going to hurt people, so many’ and ‘I have a plan to kill the rest’.

“On January 12, a week or so before the attack, he sent a message saying ‘the reason I have not massacred the school is to see if they can get better’.

“The bag the defendant took to school was searched and found to contain an axe.”

Mr Kemp revealed that the victim was hospitalised and a CT scan showed the fractured skull. In an impact statement, the boy expressed his discomfort with people touching the back of his head or standing behind him, and his refusal to enter the classroom where the assault occurred.

The school’s head teacher stated that the staff member who witnessed the hammer attack required time off work and counselling.

The teenager had previously admitted to unlawful wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possession of two offensive weapons within a school.

Laura Hocknell, defending, said her client has been living offence-free in the community for the past year since the assault.

She commented: “This case is both troubling not only on the day but leading up to it. We are dealing with mental health and this is a man on the autism spectrum.

“He has been complaining about voices (in his head) since the age of nine or ten. This is someone who can be given a youth rehabilitation order with intensive supervision and surveillance.

“He is not the sort of man who is going out and about at night. To send him into a custodial setting would, in my submission, be catastrophic, for his future rehabilitation.”

Alongside the custodial sentence, the judge issued the youth, whose identity is protected by law, a five-year restraining order.