A 15-year-old boy has been convicted of murdering a supermarket shopper, who was stabbed in the chest after a row in an Asda car park in Redditch.
Ian Kirwan, a 53-year-old software engineer at Jaguar Land Rover, was stabbed on 8 March last year after a confrontation with five boys outside the supermarket. He died before he reached hospital.
The five youths, who cannot be named due to their age, were on trial at Birmingham crown court for Kirwan’s murder, with one defendant found guilty.
After deliberating for more than 30 hours, jurors cleared three other youths – two aged 14 and one aged 16 – of murder and manslaughter but found them guilty of violent disorder.
A fifth boy, aged 16, was acquitted of murder, manslaughter and violent disorder, having claimed he was not involved in the fatal confrontation and could not have predicted it.
The court heard the group of five were part of a larger group of 11 youths who “terrorised” the public as they travelled from Birmingham to Redditch by train.
Train cameras captured a knife sticking out of the pocket of one of the boys.
Prosecutor Benjamin Aina KC told the court the group, who had their hoods up and faces covered, then headed to a nearby Asda, where five of the boys made their way to the toilets and started banging on Kirwan’s cubicle door.
The court heard Kirwan had been to B&Q in Redditch to buy a replacement light switch, before going into to Asda at about 7.15pm to buy wine and snacks. After leaving the supermarket, Kirwan approached the group and said words to the effect of: “Which one of you was fucking around in the toilet?”
The court heard one of the boys replied: “If you want a problem we’ll have a problem.”
“A scuffle broke out and during that scuffle Kirwan was stabbed once to his heart with a knife and he died before getting to the hospital,” Aina said. One witness said the confrontation lasted no more than 30 seconds: “If you had blinked you would have missed it, put it that way.”
The youths, one of whom briefly pursued Kirwan into the store where he went to seek help, fled towards Redditch railway station.
In a statement released following his death, Kirwan’s family described him as “the warmest, kindest man who loved his family and friends dearly”.
“Anyone who knew him would have known him to be both intelligent and humble and there for anybody in need,” they said. “Ian had the warmest, silliest, daftest sense of humour that you couldn’t help loving and laughing at. He brought great comfort to those around him and gave the best bear hugs that made you feel safe, protected and loved.”
All those convicted will be sentenced, at the same court, on 15 February.
