Jack Woodley murder: Killer's mum says son is innocent

Jack Woodley died from a single stab wound inflicted during a gang attack

The mother of a teenager convicted for the gang murder of an 18-year-old man has insisted her son is not a killer.

Jack Woodley was killed by a single stab wound during a group attack by 10 boys in Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear, in October.

Although only one used the knife, all 10, now aged 15 to 18, were convicted under joint enterprise and received life sentences with minimum terms of between eight and 17 years.

Nine of the youths are appealing.

Prosecutors said Mr Woodley, who was unknown to his killers, was targeted for a trivial reason by a group of youths at Houghton Feast funfair.

He was repeatedly punched, kicked and stamped upon during the 80 second-long attack but it was a single wound in his back from a knife wielded by a 15-year-old boy that proved fatal.

• Why was Jack Woodley killed?

The families of the other nine youths, none of whom can be identified, said it was not justice their sons were convicted of murder when they did not use the knife.

Prosecutors said all the defendants were guilty under the concept of joint enterprise as their presence and actions, even if relatively minor, encouraged the others in the group.

The mother of one of the boys insisted her son was "not a murderer".

She told the BBC she cried herself to sleep every night thinking of the pain caused to Mr Woodley's family.

"All I want do is give [Mr Woodley's mother] a cuddle and say how sorry I am, there's no words that can ever put that right."

She said her son was one of "30 or 40" youths at the scene and he had made "one little wrong-doing" of becoming "caught up" in the brawl "just as any child or adult would do".

"I can't see any justice," she said. "My child wasn't part of a gang. My child never premeditated anything. He should never have been there."

Mr Woodley's mother, Zoey McGill, said she considered all 10 guilty of her son's murder, adding: "If you involve yourself with someone carrying a knife and you are aware they have a knife, then you are as much as a murderer as them."