A teenager has told a jury he’d been asked to film what he thought would be a fist fight - but ended up recording a fatal stabbing.
Evidence from juvenile witnesses has been heard at the trial of a 15-year-old 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.
On day four of the trial at the Court of General Gaol Delivery, the jury heard evidence, via recorded interview and live link, from a schoolboy who had been invited to watch and film the fight which had been arranged on social media.
The witness said that he had been close friends of Christopher and had been friendly with the defendant but hadn’t spoken to him for about four months.
He explained that another boy had challenged the defendant to a fight in Douglas the year before but the latter had not turned up because, he said, ‘he got scared’.
The witness said that on May 29 he had arranged to meet Christopher and another boy on the number three bus to Ramsey, and had boarded at Laxey.
Asked by defence advocate Siobhan Grey KC what Christopher had said on the bus about the fight, the witness said: ‘That he was going to batter him. They were going to fight - a fist fight.’
He said he was told it would be a ‘two-on-one’ fight, with the two other boys on the bus together against the defendant but in the event that did not happen.
He said there was originally only going to be four who went to the defendant’s house but others were invited so the group eventually totalled about ‘nine or 11’.
One boy was not allowed to tag along. Ms Grey KC asked it this was because there were too many people and it would have looked intimidating.
The witness replied: ‘No, I wouldn’t say it was intimidating.’
He said he had begun filming on his mobile as Christopher went to throw a punch and he’d captured the full incident.
‘You were not aware it was going to a stabbing?’ asked Ms Grey KC. ‘Of course not,’ he replied. ‘I thought it would be a fist fight.’
In his recorded interview, he described how the defendant had opened the door, said ‘come here’ to the other boy and looked like he had grabbed something.
He said Christopher had walked up to him getting ready to throw a punch, then realised he’d been stabbed and dropped to the floor. The defendant had gone straight back into his house, he said.
The witness said he had later deleted the video footage. Asked by the defence advocate why he had done this, he replied: ‘I didn’t want anybody to see it.’
Ms Grey KC said that police had only been able to recover part of the footage.
The trial continues.