Khayri McLean murder trial: 17-year-old denies targeting teenager he is accused of murdering as Leeds Crown Court trial continues

The defendant said he panicked when he heard screaming and saw his co-accused next to Khayri McLean, 15, outside North Huddersfield Trust School (NHTS) in West Yorkshire. He told a jury at Leeds Crown Court on Monday that he was running with a knife in his hand when he swung at Khayri’s leg because he thought the 15-year-old was trying to “kick me to the floor”.

The teenager told the court he did not realise he had stabbed Khayri until later. Jurors have heard that Khayri was attacked while making his way home from school on September 21 last year.

Prosecutors allege that as he left the school in Woodhouse Hall Road, Huddersfield, with his friends he was met by a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old, who “charged” towards him aggressively. The 15-year-old boy stabbed him in the chest with a 30cm blade, causing fatal injuries, the jury has been told, and he has pleaded guilty to murder.

Prosecutors said the defendant who gave evidence on Monday, who was 16 at the time but is now 17, then stabbed Khayri as he was “defenceless on his back”. Standing in the witness box facing the jury, the teenager said he had gone to the school with his co-accused and they waited in an alley for another teenager they believed had smashed his mother’s front window.

He admitted he took a knife with him and had his face covered but said he was just looking for a “fist fight” with the boy. Asked by his barrister Mohammed Nawaz KC why he took the knife out of his hoodie pocket, he said: “Because I heard people screaming and I felt someone had a knife.”

The boy denied he had taken the knife out to attack someone and told the jury: “I saw (the co-accused) standing next to Khayri and there were people screaming.” Mr Nawaz said “had you wanted to stab anyone” and the boy said “no”. Asked what he was thinking as he ran, the teenager told jurors: “I was just panicking, I wasn’t thinking anything.” He said he was trying to “get back where it was safe”.

The accused said: “He (Khayri) kicked his legs in the air. I thought he was trying to kick me to the floor, trip me up. I swung it (the knife) at his leg because I thought he was going to trip me up.”

The defendant said he and his co-accused went to a wooded area where the other teenager told him he had stabbed Khayri. Mr Nawaz said: “Did you think at the time that you had stabbed him?” The boy said “no”.

He described to the jury how they both got changed in the wood. The teenager explained that they had spare clothes as they were planning to sleep at the home of the other boy’s grandmother that night. Asked why he never named his co-accused in his statement, the youngster said: “I didn’t want my family to be in any danger.”

He told the jury it was a “stupid idea” to go to the school and to take a knife. Playing him CCTV footage of the incident outside the school, Jonathan Sandiford KC, prosecuting, said to the defendant: “You were chasing him, knife in hand, ready to attack.”

The boy replied: “I wasn’t chasing him.”

Mr Sandiford said: “He was your target. He was the person you had come there to stab and that’s what you did.”

The boy said: “No, it wasn’t.”

Mr Sandiford said: “Instead of running round him, you crouched down and lunged your knife into him. The reason you did was because that was why you were there – to stab him.”

Again, the defendant denied this. The 17-year-old, who cannot be named, denies murder. Prosecutors say that although he did not inflict the fatal blow, he is guilty of murder because the pair acted together and were “encouraging and supporting each other to carry out that attack”. The trial continues on Tuesday with closing speeches.