Boy, 15, who stabbed Alfie Lewis outside primary school guilty of murder
A 15-year-old boy who stabbed teenager Alfie Lewis outside a primary school in full view of young children has been found guilty of murder.
Alfie Lewis, 15, was knifed by the then 14-year-old, in front of St Margaret’s Primary School in the Horsforth area of Leeds on November 7.
The boy had admitted stabbing Alfie, but denied murder, claiming he was scared for his life when he pulled out the 13cm long kitchen knife.
But today a jury at Leeds Crown Court convicted him of the offence.
During the trial, which started last week, prosecutor Craig Hassall KC said Alfie had been walking down the street to meet friends at the end of the school day when the defendant attacked him.
He said witnesses recalled Alfie looking ‘surprised and shocked’ and saying to the defendant ‘Chill out’ and ‘What are you doing?’ when he spotted the knife just before 3pm.
The prosecutor said: ‘Alfie did not get as far as meeting any of his friends that day.
‘He was approached by (the defendant), and stabbed twice – once in the chest and once in the leg.
‘He collapsed and died in the road close to the primary school in full view of scores of pupils leaving school and the people who were waiting to collect them.’
The post-mortem examination revealed that the fatal stab injury was a 14cm deep wound to Alfie’s chest which punctured his heart, the court heard.
Mr Hassall told the jury: ‘(The defendant) then fled the scene, dropping the murder weapon in the road close to the primary school.’
He said all the witnesses were ‘consistent’ in saying that Alfie was ‘not the aggressor’ that day.
‘Several of the witnesses speak of Alfie seeming surprised and shocked at what (the defendant) was doing, Mr Hassall told the court.
‘Several of them recall hearing Alfie ask of (the defendant): “What are you doing?”
‘None of the witnesses heard Alfie shouting at or threatening (the defendant).
‘Insofar as any of the witnesses saw Alfie doing anything towards (the defendant), they describe him trying in vain to defend himself from (the defendant’s) knife.
The defendant, who can not be named for legal reasons, told the jury he was scared of Alfie following two incidents in the months before.
The latter of these happened on Halloween when, according to the teenager, he walked past Alfie’s house with a bag of fireworks and Alfie said to him: ‘Give me the bag or something worse than last time is going to happen.’
‘The defendant said that when he returned to school after a half-term break, he decided to take a knife from the kitchen drawer to protect himself.
Describing the incident on November 7, he told the jury he aimlessly swung the knife to keep Alfie away, adding that he was ‘just trying to protect my own life.’
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