THE youth who has admitted inflicting the fatal knife wound to Jack Woodley has repeated that he did not intentionally stab him, a murder trial jury heard today (Wednesday April 13).

Giving evidence under cross-examination by prosecuting counsel Mark McKone, the 15-year-old defendant accepted pulling out the knife from the waist band of his jogging bottoms, after hearing the words: “Get the chopper out”, as others began to punch the surrounded victim.

He told the jury at Newcastle Crown Court he then removed it from the sheath and was, “just kind of waving it around,” as people congregated in the vicinity of Mr Woodley at the entrance to an alleyway, off The Broadway, Houghton-le-Spring, alongside The Britannia pub, on Saturday October 16, last year.

Asked by Mr McKone what was his “purpose” in waving it around, the defendant said: “To intimidate people and to scare people off.”

He said he was unaware if anyone else, including any of Mr Woodley’s friends, had knives with them.

“If anyone did see the knife they wouldn’t pull their knives out or get involved.”

Read more: Jack Woodley: 'It was an accident' says youth who committed fatal stabbing

The youth said then, “everything happened so fast”, and he saw “feathers fly” before noticing blood on the tip of the knife.

He was asked by Mr McKone: “Did you deliberately stab Jack?”

In reply he said: “No, I did not.”

Asked if it was an accident, he replied: “Yes, it was an accident. He wasn’t meant to be stabbed.

“I didn’t mean to stab him. I didn’t really know what happened, but somehow the knife ended up in his back.”

Asked if he meant to cause him, “really serious injury”, he responded: “I just wanted to scare them off.”

When asked how it was that Jack was stabbed, he said: “I think there’s a possibility I could have gone over, or stumbled, or he could have lost his balance and fallen onto it.

“It really wasn’t my intention to stab Jack.

“I don’t even remember any pressure of him falling onto it.”

Having shown the defendant camera phone footage of him, apparently leaning over Mr Woodley and pushing the knife towards him, Mr McKone told the defendant: “What the prosecution say is that you deliberately go towards Jack and, having got caught up in the group attack, you go up to him and push it into his back.”

The defendant replied: “That isn’t the case”.

He said, having seen the blood on the tip of the blade, he “panicked” and ran off, putting the knife back into the sheath as he fled down the alleyway, before putting it back into his jogging bottoms.

The defendant said he did not think at that stage he would have caused serious injury, but he knew the knife had gone into Mr Woodley and he accepted he was the first person to run away.

Asked what was going through his mind he said it was a mixture of “panic and regret”.

But he said he did not believe the wound inflicted would have caused Mr Woodley’s death.

He accepted putting his hood up as he left the scene to hide his identity and about five to ten minutes later threw the knife into bushes, intending to come back and retrieve it later to further conceal it.

The defendant said he went home to change clothes in case any blood had gone onto those he was wearing at the time.

He said he threw the clothes he had been wearing into a river and cleaned the knife late the following morning

Asked if he thought he would, “get away with it”, he told Mr McKone that he thought the victim would only require, “a couple of stitches, and that was it.”

He accepted that he rang friends to ask what happened and to check “what state he (Mr Woodley) was in”.

The youth said he then rang his father to tell him there had been an attack in Houghton and, “a kid had been stabbed”, but he said he did not tell him he had been involved.

Mr Woodley died in hospital from the stab wound to the back the day after the attack, which took place after all those involved left the Houghton Feast funfair in Houghton-le-Spring.

The 15-year-old admits manslaughter but denies murder.

Nine other defendants accused of involvement in the attack on Mr Woodley, aged between 14 and 17 at the time, also deny murder.

The trial continues tomorrow.

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