Boy, 15 found guilty of murdering IT worker who was stabbed in the heart outside an Asda supermarket
18 January 2023, 14:17
A boy, 15, has been found guilty of murdering a software engineer who was stabbed in the heart outside an Asda supermarket.
Ian Kirwan, 53, was attacked near the store in Redditch on March 8, after challenging the teen - who was then 14 - for "messing about" in the customer toilets.
Jurors cleared three other youths, two aged 14 and one aged 16, of murder and manslaughter at Birmingham Crown Court, but found them guilty of violent disorder.
A fifth boy, 16, was cleared of all charges, having claimed he was not involved in the fatal confrontation and could not have predicted it.
They all denied charges of murder, manslaughter and violent disorder.
Mr Kirwan, who worked at Jaguar Land Rover’s Coventry headquarters, was stabbed at 7.19pm and died before getting to the hospital, the court was told.
Jurors were told the software engineer was “unfortunate member of the public in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
Jurors were shown CCTV footage of the incident, in which the IT worker can be seen getting knifed in the heart.
Prosecutors said the footage showed three members of the group handling two separate knives before the stabbing.
The group of youths had travelled from the Birmingham area to Redditch via train.
Prosecutors said the boy who who stabbed Mr Kirwan had claimed he suffered from mental disorders at the time of the killing which substantially impaired his ability to form a rational judgement.
The prosecution accepted that the teenager suffered from mental health disorders, but said "what was operating on (the youth’s) mind at the time of the killing was a behaviour disorder.
“And a behaviour disorder is not a mental health disorder.”
None of the four boys can be legally identified because of their ages, and are due to be sentenced on February 15.
