Mikey Roynon: Three teenagers found guilty of killing boy, 16, at house party

• Watch our report from Robert Murphy

Three teenagers have been found guilty of killing a 16-year-old at a house party in Bath.

Mikey Roynon, from Kingswood near Bristol, was stabbed in the neck with a large zombie knife during a fight which broke out at the party on 10 June 2023.

He suffered a wound to his neck and died after collapsing on the driveway.

Three teenage boys, all aged 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were on trial at Bristol Crown Court.

After a five-and-a-half week trial, jurors found one boy guilty of murder and the other two boys guilty of manslaughter.

The boy found guilty of murder admitted stabbing Mikey, but claimed he acted in self-defence.

Jurors were asked whether the boy's two friends, also aged 16, who had been charged with joint enterprise murder, were equally responsible for his death.

The court was told they were also armed with 'substantial knives' and were jointly responsible for the attack on Mikey.

On 7 March, the jury concluded the boy who stabbed Mikey was guilty of murder and his two friends were guilty of manslaughter.

A witness during the trial, who was a teenager at the party, told the court he thought Mikey may have had a knife at the time he was stabbed.

However Mikey didn't have a knife on him when he died and detectives found no other evidence in support of this claim.

During the trial, jurors were shown CCTV footage taken from a bus of the three defendants arriving in Bath for the party, from Wiltshire.

The footage showed what appears to be a large knife down one of the defendant's trousers.

The police then recovered a knife with both his and Mikey's DNA on.

His clothes were also later forensically examined and found to have Mikey’s blood on.

As well as finding this boy guilty of manslaughter, the jury also found him guilty of possessing a bladed article.

Detective Inspector Mark Newbury, the senior investigating officer of the case, said: "That three boys armed themselves with knives to go to a teenage girl's 16th birthday party is unconscionable.

“Mikey went to that party to socialise and to have a good time. Instead, he was attacked with a horrifying weapon, suffered a catastrophic injury and tragically lost his life.

“Mikey was a much-loved teenage boy and his family have been left totally devastated. They have shown incredible bravery and have courageously spoken out against knife crime since his death, which is something they should never have to do.

“Since Mikey’s death other young lives have been lost across our policing area and as a result we have launched a proactive operation to tackle and disrupt serious violence and knife crime involving young people.

“However, we know police enforcement alone won’t solve the problem and we’re working closely with our local authority partners, our colleagues in education and health and the Violence Reduction Partnership to identify the root causes and divert young people away from criminality.

“Our communities are also key and we’d like to encourage parents to talk to their children about knife crime – to make sure that they understand the terrible consequences carrying a knife can have and also how to report if they have concerns about someone they know carrying a knife.”

During the trial the three defendants chose not to give evidence to the court but gave written statements.

Two of the boys, including the one who inflicted the wound, admitted possessing knives but the other boy denied having one.

All three of the sixteen-year-old's denied murder.

They will be sentenced on 3 May.

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