Alfie Lewis murder trial: Defendant 'sorry' but denies intending to kill Horsforth teen

A boy has admitted causing the death of a teenager who was stabbed to death near a school but has denied intending to kill or seriously hurt him.

The 15-year-old, who cannot be named because of his age, is on trial at Leeds Crown Court charged with the murder of Alfie Lewis.

Alfie, who was 15, died from a stab wound to the heart in the Horsforth area of the city on 7 November last year.

The accused, who denies murder, took the stand on the sixth day of the trial.

Asked by his defence barrister, Nicholas Lumley KC, if he agreed that he caused Alfie's death, the defendant said: "Yes, I agree with that and I'm sorry."

"Did you mean to kill him?" his barrister asked.

"No," the boy said.

"Did you mean to hurt him so badly that he would die?" Mr Lumley said.

"No," he replied.

The court has heard Alfie and the defendant knew each other.

On a previous occasion Alfie had become involved in an incident after the defendant allegedly struck a girl he knew during a fight with another boy.

On 31 October – a week before he was fatally stabbed – the defendant allegedly threw a lit firework at Alfie.

Alfie was attacked in front of pupils and adults close to St Margaret's Church of England Primary School after going to meet friends after the school day.

The defendant told the court he and Alfie used to be on good terms, but he disassociated himself from him after Alfie "started to build a reputation for himself".

He claimed Alfie was "violent a lot of the time" and had been violent towards him.

The court was shown mobile phone footage of a fight involving the defendant and another boy, in which Alfie was said to have got involved.

The boy told the court: "There was another boy and he pulled Alfie and the other boy off me and I stood up and started dusting the dirt off me and Alfie said, 'You better not snitch.'"

He recounted another incident on Halloween in which Alfie allegedly threatened him to hand over a bag of fireworks he was carrying.

Asked about the day of Alfie's death, the defendant claimed he armed himself because he was worried about what would happen if their paths crossed.

He said: "The morning of that day I was too scared to leave the house and didn't know what I should do so went into the kitchen into the knife drawer and picked up one of the knives in the knife drawer."

He said he wore two pairs of trousers that day and put the knife between the two pairs in the waistband.

After leaving school at the end of the day he said he saw Alfie close by.

"That's when I pulled the knife out of my waistband and I had it down by my side and Alfie looked at the knife," he said.

He said he took the knife out "to scare him away" as "he was walking towards me, like speed-walking".

"I was scared he was going to attack me," he said.

The defendant claimed Alfie lunged towards him.

"Once he had done this, I'd taken a step back and that's when I swung the knife," he said.

He said he did not realise he had connected with Alfie and he walked away because he was scared.

The trial continues.

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