A teenager admitted to stabbing 12-year-old Leo Ross in a random attack in Birmingham. Photo / West Midlands Police
A teenager admitted to stabbing 12-year-old Leo Ross in a random attack in Birmingham. Photo / West Midlands Police
A British teenager who stabbed a 12-year-old schoolboy in a park told officers that he had found his victim injured.
Leo Ross was knifed in the stomach in what was believed to be a random attack as he walked home through Yardley Wood, an area of Birmingham in England’s Midlands,last January.
Rather than flee the scene, his killer – who was 14 then and is now 15 – hung around and spoke to officers, falsely claiming that he had stumbled across Leo lying hurt on the ground.
Footage from police body-worn video showed the killer saying he had not touched the victim.
While paramedics treated Leo, who died in hospital, his killer – who was not known to him – claimed he had been riding past on a bike and had made efforts to call for help.
Body-worn camera footage showed him telling a male officer: “I was probably here around about three. I just come out every now and again and ride my bike.”
Telling the officer he was intending to ride towards a mechanic’s shop in the area, the killer said: “I was gonna come through here ’cos that leads that way.”
Referring to a woman who had contacted police, the boy, who cannot be named because of his age, added: “I seen him and I seen this woman – she was walking down, so I told her to call you guys.
“Then I went to get some help from different people, and that’s all I know about it. He was laid there like that when I got here, and that’s all I know about it.”
After being asked whether he had seen anyone near Leo, the boy added: “I’ve seen him and then as I was looking ... I didn’t touch him, because that could put me in the case.”
The teenager, whose voice was disguised on the footage to protect his identity, gave his details to police during the encounter and was later arrested after being linked to the killing and other offences.
The teenage killer giving a false account of finding the schoolboy injured. Photo / West Midlands Police
He admitted the attack when he appeared at Birmingham Crown Court this week.
The boy also admitted two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to previous random attacks on women in the area, as well as having a bladed article on the day he killed Leo.
He denied assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault by beating in relation to two other people, and those charges were ordered to lie on file.
Detectives subsequently established that the knife used to kill Leo, who was a pupil at Christ Church Church of England Secondary Academy, had been thrown into a nearby river.
Guilty pleas were entered more than six months after a trial was postponed to allow psychiatric experts time to assess the defendant.
After the murder, Leo’s family issued a statement in which they described him as an “amazing, kind, loving boy”.
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