TRAGIC Irish teacher Ann Maguire gasped “I’m dying” after she was knifed eight times by a 15-year-old pupil in Leeds, an inquest has heard.
Mrs Maguire, who was 61, told a colleague “He stabbed me in the neck” after running into a staff office bleeding heavily.
The teacher, whose parents were from Co. Mayo and husband was an Irishman, died from the wounds inflicted by pupil Will Cornick on April 28, 2014.
Mrs Maguire, 61, ran into a staff office and told a colleague "He stabbed me in the neck" in the seconds following the ambush.The inquest into her death at Wakefield Coroner’s Court heard yesterday that a colleague tried to help the Spanish language teacher, when she said: “I can’t breathe, I’m dying.”
Mrs Maguire's sisters Shelagh Connor and Denise Coutney listened as their sibling’s final words were told to the hearing by Susan Francis – the colleague who tried in vain to save her life.
In a statement read to the inquest, Ms Francis said she was in the staff office when she heard “all this screaming" and students “running down the corridor, screaming and looking horrified.”
She continued: “Ann came out and she was holding the back of her neck, I thought there had been a swarm of wasps at first.
“She kept repeating, ‘He has stabbed me in the neck’.
"She came running into the office, then the lad followed her.
"Then I shut the office door and put my foot against it. It was literally a split second.
"He just stood looking at me. No emotion. I just remember his face having no emotion. Like a mask on his face.
"I opened the door to check and there was a massive knife on the floor outside the room. I could see cuts on her jumper and lots of bleeding coming out of her neck.
"She said 'I can't breathe. I'm dying'. I just kept stroking her and kissing her.”
Ms Francis added: “She knew she was dying”.
"Her colour was going. The ambulance people arrived, their faces looked like they had walked into some kind of Armageddon.”
Ambulance worker Carl Sagar was the first paramedic to arrive on the scene and rushed Mrs Maguire to hospital.
He said in his statement: "Ann was conscious throughout this. On the way down in the lift Ann stopped breathing. We commenced CPR.
"In all my career the stab wounds inflicted on Ann were the worst I have ever seen."
It was revealed earlier this week that Cornick, who held a “grudge” against Mrs Maguire, had boasted to classmates on the day of the attack that he would murder the teacher, and even showed them his 7in blade.
He also showed them a bottle of Jack Daniels whisky and remarked: “It’s like a party”.
Along with Mrs Maguire, twisted Cornick plotted to kill a pregnant teacher’s baby as well as a number of other staff members.
The hearing was told that he calmly got up from his seat in the 4th floor languages classroom and stabbed the 61-year-old eight times.
He then returned to his seat “like nothing had happened”.
When police arrived, Cornick was chillingly calm and asked an officer for ice for his hand and what his “favourite movie” was.
He also asked: “What is your favourite adrenaline sport? Because I love adrenaline sports.”
The teenager was later sentenced to life with a minimum term of 20 years for the brutal killing.
The inquest continues at Wakefield Coroner’s Court.
