Will Cornick has been described as a loner and a high-achieving student who gave no clue to the adults around him that he was capable of murder.

He was taking GCSEs at Corpus Christ Catholic College but had passed five exams a year early. At the time of the murder, Cornick had never been convicted of a criminal offence and his school reports were positive.

The court heard Cornick's mother and father divorced when he was young but "both parents worked hard to maintain a loving relationship with the defendant and to foster a close relationship between him and his siblings".

The court also heard Cornick collapsed when he was 12 and was diagnosed with diabetes. His mother noted some self-harming between 2011 and 2012 but this seemed to stop.

In 2013 his parents reported minor stealing from home and he discovered his diabetes would bar him from his intended career in the army.

In February this year - two months before the killing - Mrs Maguire banned the boy from going on a school trip for failing to do his homework but he went anyway. At a disciplinary meeting, Cornick walked out and was disrespectful, the court heard.

His parents were called to school and, according to the boy's father, he made plain "he hated Mrs Maguire".