Teenage boy with 'knife obsession' who stabbed man to death jailed for 4 years

A boy who stabbed a man to death in "cold blood" when he was just 14 has been sentenced to four years and six months in youth detention.

The killer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has an 'obsession with knives' his trial was told.

The teenager, now 15, denied murder on June 21 last year.

A jury cleared him but convicted him of manslaughter.

He was aged 14 when he attacked Mr Edginton after arguing with him about a bicycle in the St Pauls area of Bristol on June 21.

The court heard the boy had a troubled background and was deemed to be a victim of modern slavery by being forced to deal drugs.

Judge Peter Johnson handed him an extended sentence consisting of four years and three months in custody and two years' extended licence.

He told the boy: "This was a wicked crime

"The almost casual way in which you, a 14-year-old boy, carried out a stabbing in cold blood, in broad daylight, in a public place, is chilling.

"It is clear you have a deeply ingrained habit of carrying a knife.

"You were prepared to stab someone over a trivial matter."

Jade Dural, Mr Edginton's former partner who had a daughter with him, made an impact statement in which she said: "I hope that you understand the pain and heartaches my daughter has endured since her father died because of such a selfish and heinous crime.

"My daughter, who is training to serve our country, will never ever have the opportunity to have her father's arms around her ever again.

"She will never again hear how proud he is of her as she progresses through life.

"Her children will never have a grandfather and she will not have her father at her wedding day.

"All the things a child should not have to go without, mine will.

"She cries all the time and says she misses Daddy every day.

"She keeps his photo near to her because that is all she has left of him now."

Me Edginton's mum, Dawn Barlow, described her son as "not an Angel".

But she said: "He was a good, loving person."

Simon Russell Flint, defending, said his young client was a victim of modern slavery in that he had been forced to deal drugs.

He said it was still the boy's claim that Mr Edginton was the aggressor, and the boy had not intended to harm him.

Mr Langdon said what witness Nico Newbury saw was the immediate aftermath of a stabbing, with the boy's arm out with a knife in the act of withdrawing a weapon he had just used, and Mr Edgington coming back and saying: "I've been stabbed."

Mr Newbury recalled the knife as looking like a lock knife, with blue and gold or silver on the handle and a blade about three inches long.

When Mr Edginton raised his T-shirt, showing a wound, Mr Newbury told him to put his hand on it while he called an ambulance.

Mr Newbury then tried to apprehend the boy, the court heard, as others as the scene cycled away.

The boy was identified from CCTV and arrested, the court heard.

In a prepared statement he denied stabbing anyone.

The prosecutor said that on July 31 last year, when aged 13, the accused was arrested whilst carrying a hunting knife and given a conditional caution.

On December 18 last year, in Essex, he was again found with a hunting knife in public.

On June 19 - two days before the alleged murder - he was with an engagement worker in a cafe when a knife fell out of his pocket.

On June 20 - the night before the alleged murder - his gran saw a knife on his bed and photographed it.

The jury heard the boy's iPhone showed that, in February, he tried to buy two knives online but failed without proof of age.

In early June he repeatedly looked at news stories of fatal stabbings on his phone.

And on his phone were over 600 images of knives - 200 created in the month before Mr Edginton's death - as well as a video clip of him holding a flick knife in his bedroom.

Mr Langdon said: "The prosecution says that (the boy's) fixation with knives, and his habitual possession of them, including in public, provides ample further reason to be sceptical about his account of where the knife came from, the knife that killed Darren Edginton.

"The fact is, that though he is only 14, he has an established history of carrying knives.

“He had an interest in the use of knives by others to stab.

“The prosecution say a knife was in his possession before, during and after his killing of Darren Edginton.

“It is a knife he subsequently disposed of and he has not told us when or where he did so.”

Det Supt Julie Mackay, head of the Major Crime Investigation Team, said: “This is a tragedy for everyone involved.

"Primarily it’s a tragedy for those who knew or cared about Darren Edginton, but it’s also a tragedy for the family of the 14-year-old who’s now one of the youngest people in Avon and Somerset to be convicted of manslaughter, and it’s a tragedy for the defendant himself, who’s sacrificed his liberty as a result of engaging in this senseless violence."