Jury retires in trial of boy, 16, accused of murder
Shayne Hambakachere, 16, was stabbed in January
A jury has retired, to consider its verdict, in the trial of a teenager, accused of murdering a schoolboy.
Shayne Hambakachere, 16, was found seriously injured in Chippenham, Wiltshire, at about 4pm on January 31.
He was taken to Southmead Hospital, in Bristol, but died from a single stab wound, which had penetrated his heart.
A 16 year-old boy, who cannot be identified because of his age, denies murder and is on trial at Bristol Crown Court.
Judge Peter Blair KC, the Recorder of Bristol, sent the jury of eight men and four women out to consider verdicts today (Tuesday.
The judge said he had never before come across a murder case where the defendant had filmed himself during the alleged attack.)
Giving evidence, the boy told jurors he had acted in self-defence, after Shayne attended his home, believing, wrongly, that he had a weapon and would be accompanied by others.
Jurors heard the defendant had previously robbed Shayne of cannabis and money, then sent a video of himself with the drugs.
Shayne had messaged the boy, to say the property belonged to another person, who the boy believed to be linked to the 2-4s, a Bristol-based gang.
On January 31, Shayne attended the defendant’s home and sent him a message, to arrange for them to “sort all of this out with fists”.
The boy recorded videos of himself posing with a large knife, telling the camera it was “bare sharp – I’m going to be slicing”.
He then filmed himself meeting Shayne, a year 11 pupil at Hardenhuish School in Chippenham, in an alleyway and stabbing him moments later.
“I was defending myself before he attacked me,” the boy told the jury.
After fatally stabbing Shayne, the boy discarded the knife, in a nearby derelict building and went home to have a shower.
Shayne ran to a nearby road, where he collapsed on the pavement.
He was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9.37pm the next day.
The defendant denies murder.