How a headteacher saved his pupils from a knifeman

By Nathan Standley

BBC Information

A knifeman who save a college into lockdown for nearly two hours has been detained indefinitely in a regain psychiatric hospital.

Matthew Lennox entered St Joseph’s Catholic Excessive College, in Slough, on 27 March last year, with a large knife tucked into his waistband and telling staff he had a gun. One year later, the headteacher who confronted him has spoken out for the first time.

Merely after 11:00, a member of staff taking a contemplate out of an place of job window noticed a young man walking via the faculty gates who looked varied to the varied sixth-formers.

Till that moment it, had been a normal Monday morning.

Headteacher Ciran Stapleton came in at 06:30, meeting the status managers and varied staff individuals sooner than pupils arrived.

Morning assemblies and classes had been adopted by break time, when sixth-formers came and went via the gates, the employ of their magnetised lanyard passes

Nonetheless then, the man, in a baggy tracksuit, hat and hooded jumper, with a small bag around his chest, marched straight past reception, towards the coed entrance to the faculty.

“He’s recommended me he’s got a gun,” one in all the place of job staff recommended Ciran.

In that moment, Ciran had no fear – lawful a resolute determination to guard his students.

He came across the man in a hall and confronted him.

“All the issues about it – about him – was wicked,” Ciran says.

“He was erratic and fearful, almost rocking.

“If I didn’t engage him eyeball-to-eyeball at any level, he started to panic, taking a contemplate around as if anyone may perchance reach up within the back of him.”

The man, Lennox, had a knife hidden within the back waistband of his trousers and kept his hand within the bag at his chest, which may perchance, Ciran feared, conceal the gun.

Merely yards away, science teacher Chris Robinson had been settling his Year 8 class down after break.

When 10 short, shrill rings rang around the faculty, Chris and his pupils wondered if it was a lockdown drill, appreciate one they had held lawful a few weeks sooner than.

Chris locked the classroom door and pulled down the blinds as his pupils hid underneath their desks.

In exactly a few seconds, the faculty went from being abuzz with the noise and coast of break to being fully calm.

Out of doors Chris’s classroom door, Ciran was attempting to engage with Lennox.

“I assumed, essentially the most fascinating way I am going to earn via this is to ascertain out and relieve him calm sooner than the cavalry comes,” Ciran says.

He tried to relieve him talking, asking about the tune and video games he cherished.

Nonetheless the strength of the sense of injustice he felt from earlier hasten-ins with the police quickly became clear.

“He idea that because he’d been pain, he wanted to pain,” Ciran says.

“It was actually a very sad situation. And really there was one thing very human, very vulnerable, in what we had been dealing with.

“He didn’t need a punch within the face – he wished time to be listened to.”

After minutes of aggravating conversation, Ciran heard a muffled alarm paddle off inner Lennox’s bag – and spotted a red light and loose wires spilling out.

“I lawful idea, ‘This is it, I am going to die,'” he says, fearing Lennox had some roughly bomb.

After a few agonising seconds, Lennox revealed it was merely an alarm to remind him to take his medication.

Nonetheless he recommended Ciran he was ready to die – and all americans else was going to “paddle down” too.

Chris may perchance hear the voices lawful initiate air his classroom door.

By that time, staff had been despatched an email saying the incident was no longer lawful another a drill. Around the faculty, others had been having the same realisation.

Michelle and varied pupils within the sixth-earn room had been assuming it was another drill – however they then caught a seek of law enforcement officials via a window.

“At that level, your survival instincts really kick in,” Chris says.

He moved quietly to take a seat with his back to the door, checking it was locked, while Lennox stood lawful past it.

Ciran was undecided anyone had been able to call the police. Nonetheless 25 minutes after confronting Lennox, he heard heavy footsteps and the rustling “whisper” of excessive-vis jackets approaching.

All of sudden, Lennox’s chest was alive with a mass of red dots from officers’ Tasers.

He recommended Ciran to stand back, out of harm’s way – because “I want you to be all accurate”.

And the next moment, armed officers tackled Lennox “with the pressure of a professional rugby team”, Ciran says.

Chris felt the impact as our bodies thumped against the door.

After officers had led Lennox away, Ciran was supplied a seek of the knife , which had a blade “about the dimensions of an A4 allotment of paper”.

No-one was pain within the incident – however Ciran has “absolute self belief” it was a shut call.

“He was here to make a statement,” he says.

Police took their time to make perambulate that the entire college was regain, finally lifting the lockdown after an hour and 45 minutes.

Afterwards, in his place of job, Ciran came across pupils, parents and even a disorientated grandmother who had been in a meeting with the faculty as the chaos unfolded.

Last month, after finding Lennox, 25, from West Drayton, in London, unfit to plead and stand trial, a resolve at Reading Crown Court gave him a hospital grunt with restrictions, below the Mental Health Act.

She reportedly recommended the staff at St Joseph’s for their bravery.

A year on, the faculty is back to normal – however Chris says some pupils tranquil pains about that day.

“A few students have struggled with it,” he says.

“They’ve been really brave – and I may no longer be more happy with them.”

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