Jury considering verdict of boy, 16, accused of attempted murder of girl at Norfolk school

A jury is considering whether a16-year-old boy attempted to murder a teenage girl who he stabbed in the back while at school.

Prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC said that on 11 March the defendant “went to school not to learn but to kill, taking with him a kitchen knife which he used to stab” a 15-year-old girl “in the back”.

He said that the boy, then aged 15 and now aged 16, was “dressed in black, masked up and tooled up with a kitchen knife” at Thorpe St Andrew School near Norwich, Norfolk.

Opening the prosecution case earlier this month at King’s Lynn Crown Court, Mr Paxton referred to the boy’s “obsessive and dangerous interest in killers and killing”.

He said one note, pinned up in the boy’s bedroom, said: “If you’re reading this, I am either dead or in custody.

“I imagine the police will be the first to read this and seize it as evidence, so I will make something very clear.

“I made this decision to do this on my own.

“Nobody told me to. Just me.

“Nobody knew I wanted to do this. Not a single soul.”

In his defence closing speech, Stephen Rose KC said the boy inflicted a “slight and shallow” wound.

The judge, Mr Justice Lickley, said in his summing-up that Mr Rose said “despite evidence of pre-planning, when it came to it (the boy) didn’t carry out that plan”.

The judge said the barrister said “people change their minds”.

He said the defence counsel said the wound “wasn’t life-threatening” and “there was no further attack, he didn’t attack again with the knife”.

The boy, who has pleaded guilty to wounding with intent and possession of a knife at a school, did not give evidence in his defence.

He has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.

The judge told jurors that the “central issue is has the prosecution made you sure at the time (the boy) stabbed (the girl), did he intend to kill her”.

Sending them out to begin considering their verdict, he told them: “There’s no pressure of time.