Jury sent out in murder trial over the death of Leeds schoolboy, Alfie Lewis

A 15-year-old boy - who cannot be named for legal reasons - is accused of stabbing Alfie to death outside a school in Horsforth on the afternoon of November 7 last year.

He admits delivering the fatal blow with a kitchen knife he had brought from home, but claims he feared for his own safety that day. The judge, The Honourable Justice Barry Cotter KC told the jury: “The essential facts of this case are not in dispute.”

After summarising the evidence provided by the 15 witnesses and defendant, he asked the 12-strong jury at Leeds Crown Court to begin their deliberations, instructing them to return either a verdict of guilty or not-guilty for murder, or simply guilty on a charge of manslaughter.

The trial, which began on April 22, heard that Alfie and the defendant had previous run-ins, including a fight in the months before the fatal stabbing involving the defendant and one of Alfie's friends.

Camera-phone footage of that fight showed Alfie trying to stamp on the defendant. Then a week before his death, the boy told the court that Alfie had tried to rob him of his bag but he managed to run away. 

The teenager, fearing for his safety, took the knife from the kitchen at his home, telling the court he feared he would bump into Alfie that day. He hid it in the waistband of his trousers and carried it around all day. 

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He then saw Alfie at the junction of Church Lane and Church Road in Horsforth as parents waited for their children outside St Margaret's Primary School. Numerous witnesses said they saw the boy attacking Alfie with the knife, with Alfie walking backwards away from him.

However, while giving evidence, the boy told the court that he felt he “had no other choice” but to pull out the knife and was “trying to protect” himself when Alfie tried to grab him. He stabbed him through the heart with the 13cm-long knife before running off and dropping the knife.

He was arrested a short time later. Passers-by came to Alfie's aid after he collapsed face first onto the floor. He was rushed to hospital but died a short time later from catastrophic internal bleeding.