Darrian Williams trial: Teens guilty of murder after stabbing unarmed boy in Bristol park

• ITV News' Ben McGrail speaks to Darrian Williams' family on their heartbreak following his murder in east Bristol

Two teenage boys have been found guilty of murdering 16-year-old Darrian Williams after a trial at Bristol Crown Court.

The pair, who were 15 at the time and are now 16, cannot be named due to their age.

Darrian was attacked in Rawnsley Park in Easton on Wednesday 14 February this year, after being stabbed in the back.

Michael Burrows KC, prosecuting, previously told the court there were two gangs in Bristol that have been in conflict for each other in recent years.

The '1-6' - also known as the 16s or 6s - is associated with the Fishponds, Hillfields and Oldbury Court areas while the '2-4s', or 2s, is linked to the St Pauls and St Judes areas of Bristol.

Mr Burrows previously described the incident as “some kind of gang attack”.

The two killers claimed in court that Darrian was in a gang but Avon and Somerset Police say there is no evidence to suggest this. He was unarmed on the night of his death.

Darrian was 'cheeky, smart and intelligent' - aunt

Tiffany Williams, Darrian's aunt and foster mother for eight years, said her whole world has been "shattered" by losing him.

"I still look for him in the mornings to say good morning," she told ITV News. "I still wait for him to come home at night.

"I have to visit my boy at a grave. I don't get to celebrate his birthday. I never get to see my Darr again. He was cheeky, smart, extremely intelligent - very, very intelligent.

"He lived with me for eight years. He was like my right hand man with the younger kids.

"He just did everything I'd forget like putting pounds under their pillows for their teeth and things like that.

"He'd be the one to remind me and go and do it for me. He was so mature. He did have to grow up very quickly - he has two siblings but my son, his cousin, was like his younger brother as well."

She said no justice can ever balance his loss and has urged parents to help prevent more deaths.

"You don't see your kid from one end of the day to the next. What have they been doing? Do you know where they are? Do you have trackers on their phone? I see 15, 16 year olds out all the time at stupid o'clock.

"We've seen it, kids are just allowed to do what they want to do. My boy wasn't like that. My boy did get searched, my boy wasn't allowed to be out until stupid o'clock - he had curfews.

"This happened at five, six o'clock in the evening, not at five or six o'clock in the morning.

"Unless you know what your kids are doing and when they're doing it ,something like this is going to happen again."

He was 'good at everything he did'

Damion Wright, Darrien's father, said: "You could see in him that he had a lot of ambition. He was going places. He wasn't going to just stop and do nothing.

"He was good at everything he did, so no matter what he would have done he would have been good at it."

During the trial, the jury heard how Darrian was sitting with his friends in Rawnsley Park, Easton, when he was attacked.

Prosecuting barrister Michael Burrows KC told Bristol Crown Court: "They [the defendants] cycled into the park, they saw him they got off their bikes, advanced towards him and stabbed him."

The court heard Darrian managed to kick at both offenders. He then ran away from the park and tried to get in commuters' cars on Easton Way.

One driver, who was in her car with her 12-year-old son said: "He was approaching vehicles, trying to get in. He kept turning round pointing to his back."

Darrian, whose back was covered in blood, eventually found a driver who would give him a lift. He was taken as far as Old Market - around a mile away - before he got out of the car.

Paramedics were called but Darrian died at the scene.

The jury heard the stabbing followed two other incidents. The first happened a few weeks before, when Darrian was standing at a bus stop with friends.

The jury was told five youths wearing balaclavas turned up on bikes and asked if Darrian was a member of the 1-6 gang, which is based in the St Paul’s area of the city. The group then left.

The jury was told a few days before the attack on Darrian, one of the boys accused of killing Darrian was at McDonald's in Horsefair when another youth approached him with a machete. The boy ran away.

Mr Burrows told the court: "Following the attack in McDonald's, he [one of the defendants] feared for his safety and carried a knife."

Mr Burrows said that following Darrian's murder in February, a foot mark on one of the defendant's coats was found to match his shoe.

Mr Burrows said: "This was a joint attack and both defendants had the intention to kill or cause serious injury."

Defendant claimed attack was 'self-defence'

The court heard one of the defendants admitted he inflicted the stab wound, but said he did it in self-defence.

One of the boys gave evidence to the court, telling jurors how he had met his co-defendant to “hang around and chill” earlier in the day.

He told how he was wearing a balaclava, as he did regularly, adding: “It’s fashionable for young people these days”. He said he was carrying a kitchen knife following a previous incident in the city.

The boy said they cycled past Rawnsley Park on their way to the St Pauls area of Bristol – spotting Darrian there – then returned a short time later.

He claimed Darrian had shouted “yo, yo” at them, which he took to mean they should go over to him.

“I dropped my bike. I went towards him. I said ‘wa gwan’. Darrian went back and kicked me in my chest area,” he said.

“I stumbled backwards. He kicked [the co-defendant] in the chest area. He fell to the ground.

“I moved around the bench. After he kicked [the co-defendant] I saw his hands around his waist. I was fearing that he was pulling out a knife. I heard something about a shank. A shank is a knife.

“I was quite scared. I had butterflies in my stomach. I pulled out my knife quickly and I stabbed at Darrian. I heard [his] coat rip.”

The boy claimed he wasn't trying to kill Darrian and thought he wasn't injured, as he then ran away.

Boy carried knife 'to protect himself'

Following the incident, Darrian ran from the defendants and reached a nearby dual carriageway, where he got into the passenger seat of a passing van.

The driver tried to take him to a police station and pulled over on West Street in the Old Market part of the city, where Darrian received medical attention but was pronounced dead at 7.10pm.

During his evidence, the 16-year-old defendant said he left the park with his co-defendant and later told him “I might have stabbed Darrian”.

He told how he later saw pictures of Darrian posted onto Snapchat with an emoji of a white bird, which made him think he “might have died”.

The boy said: “I was feeling worried.”

Following his arrest, he told jurors he took the advice of his solicitor and remained silent during interviews.

During questioning by his barrister in court, the boy said he had started carrying a knife to protect himself and others following an incident in a McDonalds branch in Bristol, on 8 February.

The court heard how a 16-year-old boy, who is not part of the case relating to Darrian and cannot be named for legal reasons, had been stabbed in the stomach with a machete, sustaining serious injuries.

Darrian was not armed on the night he died - police

Speaking after the trial, Det Insp Neil Meade of Avon and Somerset Police said: "Darrian wasn't armed that night himself. Those two boys came into the park armed with knives and decided to attack Darrian and his group of friends - ultimately leading to Darrian's death.

"We do know and we're not blind to the fact that there are rival groups within the city of Bristol and we do know that there were allegations made by the offenders that Darrian belonged to one of the rival groups.

"We've had a look at the intelligence we hold as police, spoken to community members and spoken to our witnesses and there's nothing to suggest as part of this investigation that he was a member of any of those groups."

A jury at Bristol Crown Court unanimously found both 16-year-old defendants guilty of Darrian's murder. They will be sentenced in due course.

Darrian's family, who were in tears, hugged as the verdicts were read.