Four teenagers found guilty of murdering Joseph Riches in daylight machete attack

Four teenagers who brutally stabbed a 16-year-old schoolboy to death in a horrific daytime machete attack have been convicted of murder. 

Joseph Riches was stabbed in Coventry Street, Stourbridge, on Saturday 15 July and was driven to Rowley Regis, where he was pronounced dead at the scene.One of the attackers viciously plunged a machete into his chest before fleeing the scene, Coventry Crown Court heard. 

Joseph scrambled into a car driven by his friends but bled to death in the vehicle. His body was discovered in the car when it was dumped four miles away from the scene of the killing.

Dray Simmonds and Joshua Edgington, both 20, and two 16-year-olds, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were found guilty of murder today (13 February).

The trial heard Simmonds, who was 19 at the time, inflicted the fatal blow. The other three defendants were convicted on a joint enterprise basis.

Joseph, from Bartley Green, Birmingham, was in Stourbridge town centre with friends on the day of his murder, the court heard, when he spotted another group of teenagers and ran up to them at the bottom of High Street. 

Joseph attacked two of them with a screwdriver before attempting to get into a car with his friends which had pulled up alongside him, jurors were told.But the teenager struggled to get into the car and ran off along Coventry Street as he was chased. Joseph was then attacked himself, suffering a fatal blow to the chest.He managed to get to his feet and got into the car with his friends who had driven up Coventry Street to meet him. But he was later discovered dead in the car which had been abandoned four miles away on Orchard Close, Rowley Regis.The machete was found by a member of the public under a fire escape on High Street, Stourbridge. Simmonds was arrested the next day, while his accomplices were detained later that evening after turning up at the police station.

Simmonds, Edgington and the two 16-year-olds will be sentenced on Thursday (15 February). 

The motive for the conflict between the two groups remains unknown, police said. Joseph's mum Sarah paid tribute to her 'amazing' son and said she was still struggling to come to terms with his death.Sarah said: "Joseph was an amazing young man who had the world at his fingertips. He was kind, funny, caring, loyal and compassionate."His murder has left a huge hole in the lives of his family and friends and he will be forever loved and missed by us all. I will never forgive and never forget."