Jury retires in machete murder trial

The alleged attackers of Shawn Seesahai have blamed each other for his death

A jury has retired to consider its verdicts on two 12-year-old boys accused of murdering a man in Wolverhampton.

The youths, who cannot be identified because of their age, are alleged to be jointly responsible for the murder of Shawn Seesahai.

The 19-year-old was stabbed through the heart with a machete but each of the defendants blames the other for inflicting the fatal wound and they deny murder.

High Court Judge Mrs Justice Tipples sent the jury out on Wednesday after a trial lasting nearly five weeks.

One of the defendants has admitted possessing the machete at the scene near a bench on Stowlawn playing fields, but told jurors his co-accused used the weapon to stab the 19-year-old.

The co-accused told Nottingham Crown Court that his only involvement was pushing Mr Seesahai and that he was "nowhere near" as his friend killed the victim.

In closing speeches to jurors on Monday, defence KCs Rachel Brand and Paul Lewis separately invited jurors to acquit their client of murder and an alternative count of manslaughter.

Prosecutors have said Mr Seesahai, originally from Anguilla in the Caribbean but living in Birmingham, was slashed on the legs and hit so hard in the attack on 13 November last year that a piece of bone in his skull came away.

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