Boy, 14, stabbed to death in 'pre-arranged' fight, trial hears

A 14-year-old boy was stabbed to death with "severe force" after a fight was "pre-arranged" on social media, a trial on the Isle of Man has heard.

Christopher McBurnie was pronounced dead at the scene following the attack in Ramsey on 29 May last year.

A 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named because of his age, is accused of inflicting the fatal wound and denies murder.

Opening the case for the prosecution, David Temkin KC said while the defence team would argue he had acted in self-defence, the attack had been "deliberate and frenzied" with the intent to kill.

Temkin said the two boys , who were both aged 14 at the time, had never met before but had traded insults online, including in a group on Snapchat.

He said although both teenagers had made threats against each other, the accused was determined a fight would happen.

By giving Christopher his home address, including the postcode, he had shown he "wanted to fight on his own territory".

The court was told exchanges on Snapchat included Christopher stating: "Lad, you're not doing nothing, you're the biggest keyboard warrior ever."

In another he said: "I'm not going to get you jumped, I'm saying one-on-one."

Temkin said messages by the defendant had included him saying "come [to] Ramsey" and threatening to kill Christopher, to which he replied: "You're not even killing a fly."

In another, the accused left a voice message, which included the words: "I'll kill you if you come to my house, on my mum's life."

The court was told Christopher had caught the bus from Castletown, where he lived, with two other boys and travelled to Ramsey on the afternoon of the stabbing.

On arrival they met with a group of other children and walked to the accused's home, arriving there at about 15:30 BST.

The stabbing happened after Christopher, who was unarmed, approached the front door, Temkin said.

Although the group who had gone to the address were expecting to see a fist fight, the "level of violence was not at all what Christopher was expecting", he added.

The court heard the injuries he suffered included a fatal wound to the right of the chest, which according to a pathologist had entered his lung and cut through major blood vessels causing "immediate and torrential blood loss", Temkin said.

Christopher was pronounced dead about 40 minutes later, the court was told.

Temkin said the attack was "unlawful, deliberate and frenzied", and although it did not last for more than a few seconds, it was "intended to kill" or "at the very least to do really serious harm".

The messages sent by the accused in the run-up to the meeting had "made clear he would come out of his house and kill him", Temkin said.

"That is exactly what happened," he said.

"What happened was not lawful, it was not self-defence, it was murder."

The trial continues at Douglas Courthouse.

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