Harry Baker murder trial: Stabbed teen was 'head boy drug dealer'

Harry Baker sustained stab wounds to the stomach and skull, jurors have heard

A teenager who was knifed through the brain by an "armed and deadly gang" was the head boy drug dealer in Barry, a court has heard.

Harry Baker, 17, had made connections with older, more established dealers, witness Natasha Allt told Newport Crown Court.

Harry, from Cardiff, was found dead in a shipping container yard in Barry Docks, in August 2019.

Six men and a boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, deny his murder.

Prosecutors have suggested the killing, which they told the court came after he was chased for a mile through the town by the gang, was motivated by drugs.

Under cross-examination Ms Allt, who witnessed an ambush some of the defendants are said to have carried out on Harry and his friend before they were chased to Barry Docks, said he had been dealing drugs to her mother.

She said Harry was "the head boy" and his friend was "his runner".

Harry Baker's body was found at a compound in Barry Docks in August 2019

Ms Allt was asked in court whether Harry had made the area around her house his "turf".

She said: "He was selling all over Barry."

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She was not "exaggerating" when she said one the defendants had slapped her in the face with a machete during the ambush of Harry, the court heard.

She said: "He slapped me with the blade... it hit me in the face".

Although Ms Allt witnessed the ambush of Harry and his friend, she was not present at Barry Docks.

"They killed a young boy in cold blood, it is sick," she told the court.

'On her unborn baby's life'

The jury also heard from a friend of one of the defendant's girlfriends, who said she overheard a telephone conversation between the couple two days after Harry Baker's death.

Whitley Andrews heard defendant Leon Clifford tell his partner Jessica Davies "that he was involved in killing him".

The court heard how "the colour drained" from Ms Davies as she learned her partner had been with another defendant at the time.

She added: "He said he'd licked him two times with a knife, but he was alive when he left him".

Ms Andrews said Ms Davies had asked Leon Clifford to "swear on her unborn baby's life".

But "he wouldn't do it", the court heard.

Leon Clifford, 23; Raymond Thompson, 48; Lewis Evans, 62; Ryan Palmer, 34 and Peter McCarthy, 37, all from Barry; Leon Symons, 22, from Ely in Cardiff, and a 17-year-old boy who cannot be identified, all deny murder.

The trial continues.