A 13-YEAR-OLD English boy has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the stabbing to death of a 53-year-old Irishman.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced to detention at Her Majesty’s pleasure, the juvenile equivalent of a life sentence. The minimum he will serve is 11 years.
The schoolboy stabbed Cork man Christopher Barry at a block of flats in Edmonton, north London, on 14 December last year.
The court was told how he had left a 13th birthday party to accompany another boy to his bus home. On the way back, he and his friends went to the wrong block of flats and came across Barry and his girlfriend, Sabrina Finn.
When Barry refused to allow them into the building, there was a confrontation before the boy got into the flats. He followed Mr Barry to the lift, where he took a kitchen knife from his backpack.
The court was told he asked the victim “What you saying now? What you saying now?” before stabbing him twice.
Barry, originally from Cobh, went into cardiac arrest once back in his flat and died.
The boy sent a text to a friend saying “If anyone asks, I wasn’t there today” and told another he was going to prison.
The Evening Standard reports that Judge Stephen Kramer refused to lift restrictions on naming the boy after seeing a letter from the boy’s mother. He said that despite the age of the attacker, the stabbing was deliberate.
“You are 13. But you were carrying a knife in your bag and wanted to get into a block of flats to get back to some friends.
“But you went to the wrong block with tragic consequences for everybody.
“Christopher Barry had been out walking with his girlfriend and refused to let you to where he lived. You followed him produced your knife and stabbed him twice in the chest.
“You took a knife to the scene, you put it in your back pack and deliberately took it out and stabbed him with it.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say