Murder accused grabbed knife 'to protect himself' after thinking he would die

A boy accused of stabbing another teenager to death said: ‘l thought I would die if 10 people pounced on me’.

In a prepared statement handed to police during the interview process, the boy claimed he only grabbed the knife after concerns over how many people turned up to his home.

The 15-year-old is accused of the murder of 14-year-old Christopher McBurnie, who was stabbed to death in Ramsey on May 29 last year.

The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admits inflicting the fatal wound but claims he was acting in self-defence. He has pleaded not guilty to murder.

The trial is now at the end of the second week and on Friday, the jury heard the prepared statement the defendant gave during a series of interviews undertaken in the days after his arrest and before he was charged.

‘I first met Christopher on Snapchat three years ago,’ the boy said in his statement.

He then explained Christopher was added to a group chat with another boy he ‘had a problem with’.

Matters escalated just a couple of days before the incident which led to Christopher’s death.

The defendant said: ‘I was on a TikTok Live when Christopher came on and asked if I was [defendant’s name] who chats a lot of s***?’

The boy said they exchanged messages and added: ‘I said something like “come to my house and I will do your head in”. Christopher then said “alright, see you there tomorrow”.

‘I thought I was challenging him to a one-on-one fist fight and that nothing would come of it.’

The next day the boy said he saw through the kitchen window a group of what he thought were ‘30 people’ outside.

He said: ‘I was frightened because there were so many people outside. I grabbed the knife and put the knife in my pocket.

‘I had the knife to protect myself because I thought I was going to get jumped.’

The boy said he went outside and Christopher ran towards him and started throwing punches.

The defendant said: ‘I told him “I will stab you mate”. I just wanted to scare him, I did not want to use the knife.

‘I was frightened I would die if 10 people pounced on me. I pulled out the knife to defend myself.

‘I stabbed Christopher, I did not know how many times. I thought I had to stab him or I would be killed. I didn’t want to kill him or badly hurt him, I just wanted to stop him from attacking me.’

Just before 5pm on June 2 last year the defendant was charged with murder.

On day nine of the trial, exhibits were also shown to the jury which seized from the scene by police.

The first items produced were the outside and inside front door handles and the door chain which were all found to have Christopher’s blood on them.

Items of Christopher’s were also produced with two jackets, a t-shirt and a bank and travel card shown to the jury. These were all damaged by what appeared to be a knife and were also blood stained.

The defendant’s Nike top that he wore was also forensically examined with Christopher’s blood found on it.

The trial is set to resume on Wednesday.