Northampton teenager Fred Shand stabbed to death 'in feud between school groups', court hears

The judge has begun summing up at the trial of two teenage boys charged with the murder of a 16-year-old in what prosecutors say began as a feud between youngsters from different schools.

Rohan Shand, who was known as Fred, died from a single stab wound outside the Cock Hotel on Harborough Road in the Kingsthorpe area of Northampton while on his way back from college on 22 March.

The defendants are a 17-year-old boy who was 16 at the time, and a 15-year-old boy who was 14 when the incident happened. Neither can be named for legal reasons.

The prosecution case is that it was the the younger defendant who stabbed Fred but that both are guilty of murder through joint enterprise.

Both deny murder.

The younger defendant has admitted manslaughter but that is denied by the 17-year-old.

After three weeks of evidence, on Tuesday judge Mr Justice Morris reminded the jury that the stabbing was the culmination of a feud between two groups of youths from different schools which had begun two days earlier.

On 20 March, the 15-year-old defendant had punched a teenager in the face three times outside a Taco Bell restaurant in the town.

He later gave evidence that he had done it because the victim was a friend of someone who was going out with a girl he wanted to be with.

He admitted he was carrying a knife at the time but had not produced it because he had not needed it to win the fight.

It was claimed that, in retaliation, the following day Fred Shand was one of a group of youths who attacked two of the defendants' friends outside the McDonalds in The Drapery. Jurors heard that Fred had hit one of them in the face with his belt, causing his mouth to bleed.

The younger defendant heard about what had happened on social media and believed they would come looking for him.

In his evidence he said: "I was really scared. I was overthinking. I was thinking about what they were capable of because they had attacked people just for knowing me."

Using social media, the two defendants and a third teenager formed a plan to get revenge.

The 15-year-old told the court: "We were going to attack them, beat them up, give them a bloody nose, a black eye, a cut lip." He added the plan was to stop once they had knocked them down.

He admitted that at that stage none of them even knew what Fred Shand looked like because they did not know him.

Asked if he stopped to consider whether someone might get seriously hurt or killed he said: "No, at no point. Not for a moment."

In his evidence he said the older defendant had told him to "get your tools and come by my yard," but that he had then told him to leave the knife at his house.

The younger boy said they had hoped to take others with them but it ended up being just the two of them.

The plan had been to leave his two knives at his co-defendants house but there had not been time to go there.

Asked if he thought being armed with the weapons had been a dangerous thing to do, he said: "I never thought anyone would get hurt. I thought if I got my knife out they would run away."

They finally found Fred and another youth outside the Cock Hotel.

Summing up, the judge said that a witness said the older defendant had shoved him while the younger one tried to stab Fred in the back.

Fred's rucksack prevented the blade hurting him but as Fred turned round the defendant stabbed him in the chest, he added.

The judge is expected to finish summing up on Wednesday morning when the jury will retire to consider its verdict.

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