HARROWING eyewitness evidence from a young girl, who said she saw a frenzied group attack on a defenceless teenager, has been played to jurors at a murder trial.

Jack Woodley was left bloodied, battered and fighting for his life after he was beaten and stabbed by a large gang of teenagers as he left the Houghton Feast.

Newcastle Crown Court heard Jack’s friends tried to intervene after the group began punching and kicking him, but were also injured themselves as chaotic scenes of violence erupted.

Jack, 18, from Newton Aycliffe, was seriously injured and was rushed to hospital but died the following day.

Ten youths aged 14 to 18 are now on trial and all deny murder.

Read more: Gang armed with Rambo knife was 'looking for excuse' to hurt someone

The court heard there was conflict between two groups after one of the girls, who had kissed one of the defendants, was hit by his ex-girlfriend.

The girl giving evidence said the group then accused Jack of ‘talking sh*t’ about them and used this as a pretext to start trouble.

She said one of the boys asked Jack for a ‘one-on-one’ fight but he said he did not want to.

The girl said one member of the group patted Jack down to make sure he was not carrying a knife, telling his friends: ‘He’s clean’.

The girl said it was the same boy who shortly afterwards suggested using the 'Rambo-style' knife one of them was carrying.

The girls said: “We were walking along and this lad, said: ‘Why don’t we get the chopper out and just do him?’

“We kept walking and this lad runs over and punches Jack straight in the side of the head.

“All of the lads go running after and start kicking into Jack.

“We are trying to get them off him. We go to help him and we are getting hit ourselves, and the someone grabbed my friend by the back of the head and smashed her face into a car window.

“The lasses jumped on her and started lacing into her.

“I left Jack for a second and started pulling girls off her.”

The attack happened on the evening of October 16 near the Britannia Inn in Houghton-le-Spring.

The witness said she then saw Jack on the floor trying to crawl away from his attackers.

She said: “He was covered in blood. One lad kicked him in the head again. People kept kicking him. He went unconscious.

“Then I saw these lasses kneeing my friend in the face so I pulled them off her.”

She said she ran up the street and someone asked if Jack was ‘alright’.

She said she told the person she thought he had been stabbed.

“She said: “I went back and I was holding his hand. He was spitting blood on me.

“My friend was screaming: ‘Ring an ambulance, ring an ambulance’.

“He was cold and everyone was just stood. The police came and everyone walked off.”

A 15-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to manslaughter, admitting that he stabbed Mr Woodley but denying that he intended to kill him.

The other nine defendants, who were all aged between 14 and 17 at the time of the attack and cannot be named for legal reasons, deny both charges of murder and manslaughter.

The trial continues.

Read more: Man in hospital after stabbing in County Durham

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