“There was wet blood on the blade of the knife. The boy was holding it out at arm’s length with the blade pointing upwards.”

Ms Quinn is an eye witness in the murder of a 16 year old boy by a gang of ‘smiling and happy’ youths. They chased him brandishing knives and bats, and even a bull terrier. Prosecutor Sir Allan Green QC said, “Behind him was a group of ten black youths. She noticed two girls as well. She could hear a few members of the group shouting ‘catch him, kill him’. She heard a girl shout ‘he’s going to stab him’, then the same girl shouted, ‘he stabbed him’. Teacher Angela Quinn saw the boy minutes after the stabbing carrying the knife and with ‘his eyes looking big and all psyched up’.

The trial continues.

Sir Allen said that ‘he looked proud, as if he had really accomplished something.’