Khayri Mclean: Boy denies targeting teenager stabbed to death outside school

Khayri Mclean, 15, was stabbed to death outside North Huddersfield Trust School

A teenager has denied targeting a 15-year-old boy who was stabbed to death outside his Huddersfield school.

The 17-year-old told Leeds Crown Court he was looking for a "fist fight" with another youth when he became involved in violence that killed Khayri Mclean.

Khayri was stabbed near the entrance to North Huddersfield Trust School on 21 September and later died in hospital.

A 15-year-old has pleaded guilty to murder but the older boy denies the charge.

Prosecutors allege the pair "charged" at Khayri as he made his way home from the school in Woodhouse Hall Road with his friends.

The 15-year-old defendant stabbed him in the chest with a 30cm blade, causing fatal injuries, the jury has been told.

The older teenager, who was 16 at the time of the attack, then allegedly stabbed Khayri as he was lying "defenceless on his back".

Khayri Mclean was stabbed near the entrance to North Huddersfield Trust School on 21 September 2022

Giving evidence on Monday, the 17-year-old admitted swinging a knife at Khayri but said he did not realise he had stabbed him.

He told the jury he had gone to the school with his co-accused and waited in an alley for another teenager they believed had smashed his mother's window.

He admitted taking a knife with him and covering his face but claimed he was just looking for a "fist fight" with the boy.

Asked by his barrister Mohammed Nawaz KC why he took the blade out of his hoodie pocket, he said he had panicked when he "heard people screaming" and "felt someone had a knife".

The boy told the court he had tried to "get back where it was safe" when Khayri "kicked his legs in the air".

He said he swung the knife at Khayri's leg because he "thought he was trying to kick me to the floor, trip me up".

'Ready to attack'

He told the court he and his co-accused got changed in woods after the alleged attack. He said they had spare clothes as they were planning to sleep at the home of the other boy's grandmother that night.

Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC, cross-examining the defendant, suggested he had gone to the school with the intention of stabbing Khayri.

He said: "You were chasing him, knife in hand, ready to attack.

"He was your target. He was the person you had come there to stab and that's what you did."

The boy denied the allegations.

The trial continues.