Jack Woodley death: Teen killer 'claimed to have stabbed before'

Jack Woodley's family described him as "cheeky and charming"

A 15-year-old boy who killed a teenager in a gang attack claimed he had stabbed people before, jurors have heard.

Jack Woodley, 18, was punched, kicked and stamped on by 10 youths before the teenager stabbed him with a "Rambo-style" knife, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

The defendant admits manslaughter but denies murdering Mr Woodley in Houghton-le-Spring on 16 October.

Nine others on trial, aged between 14 and 18, deny murder and manslaughter.

The court previously heard the gang was "looking for serious trouble" at a funfair and targeted Mr Woodley for "trivial reasons", chasing him down an alleyway and attacking him near a pub, the Britannia Inn.

Jurors heard from a 15-year-old girl who was with the confessed killer earlier in the day.

Due to the ages of the witness and the defendant, they cannot be identified.

He had shown her a "machete-style" blade which he claimed he had "stabbed two people" with in another part of the country, she said.

The jury was told he then demonstrated "how much of the knife went into the people" but did not say whom he had stabbed or why.

The girl said they later met some of his friends and the group discussed how they were going to "fight someone" that night, adding they seemed "quite excited".

Prosecutor Mark McKone QC said her testimony "supports the prosecution case that this attack and the stabbing was planned, albeit they had no particular victim in mind at that stage".

Jack Woodley was attacked near the Britannia Inn in Houghton-le-Spring

The boy's barrister, Nicholas Lumley QC, asked the witness if she was "exaggerating" what his client had said about stabbing people, being in a gang and wanting a fight, to which she replied "no".

He put it to her that the boy "did not say those things", but she disagreed.

Mr Woodley, who had lived in the Durham area before moving to Sunderland, died the following day in hospital from a 7cm (2.8in)-deep knife wound in his back.

He had also suffered a number of "significant injuries" around his head and back typical of "multiple kicks and stamps", Mr McKone said.

Some marks were consistent with a knuckle-duster being used and one of the boys, aged 15, admitted he had one although denied using it in the attack and it was never recovered by police.

The girl said other children were asking the 15-year-old killer about the attack on the following Monday at school, but he denied any knowledge of it.

The trial continues.