Inquiry launched into Maguire murder

AN INQUIRY has been launched into the murder of Ann Maguire, who was stabbed to death while teaching at a Catholic college in Leeds in 2014, after her family claimed that the council withheld information about the attack, writes Liz Dodd.

William Cornick, a pupil at the school who was 15 at the time, was detained for a minimum of 20 years in 2014 for the murder at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds.

During the trial Leeds Crown Court heard that he had told other pupils that he intended to kill the Spanish teacher.

But in a statement on a campaign website, Truth for Ann, which was launched to help raise funds to support an inquest, her family said that because Cornick had pleaded guilty there was never a full criminal trial that went through the evidence, nor was there a full inquest.

They alleged that there might be some evidence that her death could have been prevented.

The family successfully crowdfunded £10,000 to hire a lawyer and this week a coroner agreed to carry out a full public inquest into the case.

In a television programme broadcast last week Channel 4 claimed that more than a dozen teachers had left the school since 2014 and that a number were paid thousands of pounds and signed severance agreements that included confidentiality clauses.

The school and Leeds City Council have denied this.

In a statement Leeds City Council said it had fully supported the police investigation and had commissioned a comprehensive review through the Leeds Safeguarding Children Board.