A 15-year-old boy who went out with a knife “hoping” to stab someone has been found guilty of murdering another schoolboy in Gateshead.
A jury at Newcastle crown court on Monday found Leighton Amies guilty of the murder of Tomasz Oleszak, 14.
Amies, who was also 14 at the time, shouted “I’m going to wet you” before stabbing Tomasz in the chest, the jury heard. “Wet you” is slang for “stab you”.
Tomasz, who was among a group of teenagers in Whitehills nature park in Gateshead in October last year, and Amies did not know each other.
During the trial Amies could not be named by the media but Mr Justice Spencer, sitting at Newcastle crown court on Monday, lifted the reporting ban.
The judge said: “There is a public interest in trying to deflect young people from the carrying of knives, where when that happens, this kind of utterly tragic outcome can occur.”
Mr Justice Spencer added: “In my judgment, the public interest in reporting fully of these proceedings, including the identity of the defendant, in fact outweighs the interests of the defendant in having the anonymity of his identity maintained.”
The defendant, who was walking through the park with his girlfriend, claimed he was acting in self-defence and the stabbing was an accident. He said he was carrying a steak knife for reassurance, although he was not expecting trouble.
The prosecutor, Mark McKone KC, in his closing speech to the jury, said: “The prosecution say that [the defendant] took the knife out hoping he could use it to stab someone.”
The victim’s group was not “blameless” and the defendant had faced “hostility”, the barrister added. But he said the prosecution did not accept Amies was acting in self-defence when he stabbed Tomasz and slashed the jacket of another boy after being knocked to the ground by the group.
McKone said the defendant “was in anger when he used that knife. [He] used the hostility to him as his chance to use his knife to stab someone, a chance he had been looking for since he took the knife out that evening.”
The depth of the fatal wound was 8cm and would, a pathologist said, have required a “reasonable” amount of force and could not have been caused by a slashing action. It could only be a “stabbing action”, he said.
Amies, now 15, denied murder and attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to the boy whose jacket was slashed. He was found guilty of both charges.
He has admitted carrying a blade.
The jury heard the defendant told the gang “I have wetted your boy” after Tomasz was stabbed. McKone said: “He wanted them to know he had stabbed one of their number. It was a boast. A person doesn’t say, ‘I have wetted your boy’ if the stabbing was a reluctant act of self-defence or a terrible accident.”
Peter Makepeace KC, defending, said the defendant had not looked for trouble and asked the jury to put themselves in his situation: he was aged 14, attacked by a group, in the dark, not knowing if any of the gang were armed. He said: “This is a 14-year-old under group attack and having to make terrible decisions under a moment’s notice.”
Outside court, DI Chris Deavin, who led the inquiry, said: “Tomasz had his whole life ahead of him, he was a promising footballer and a popular pupil at his school.
“Today, Leighton Amies has been found guilty of murder but no conviction or any length of sentence will ever bring Tomasz back.
“We want to send an unequivocal message to anyone who chooses to carry a weapon of any kind or believes that violence is acceptable – the consequences can be devastating.
“Look at the pain this tragedy has caused – not only could you take away someone else’s future and destroy the lives of their loved ones, but also ruin your own and those of your family and friends.”
Deavin also urged parents to speak to their children about the dangers of carrying a knife, adding: “Most importantly, we implore those who do carry a knife or believe it is a wise, admirable or a necessary thing to do, to think again and stop.”
