A British teenager has been found guilty of killing a 14-year-old Polish boy. The perpetrator claimed he only pulled out a knife after being punched, kicked, and pinned to the ground, but the prosecution demonstrated this was a lie. 

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The tragedy occurred on the evening of 3 October in a park on the outskirts of Gateshead. Tomasz Oleszak suffered a 8-centimetre-deep wound in his chest, and as a result, he died in the hospital later that same night. You can read about the accident in our article from October last year 14-year-old Pole was stabbed to death in Gateshead.

It is unclear why Leighton Amies (a judge lifted reporting restrictions) decided to take a serrated steak knife from his mother’s kitchen. During his trial, he stated that it was a last-minute decision as he headed out into the dark autumn evening. When asked why he took it, Amies stated that it was „for reassurance.”

The 14-year-old assailant claimed that he accidentally stabbed the victim while defending himself against a group attack that included the Polish boy. That night, he was walking through the park with his girlfriend when she told him about a group of teenagers following them.

According to his testimony, he was attacked by a group of people who punched, kicked and wrestled him to the ground, causing him to pull out the knife to scare them away. He claimed to have waved the knife around but did not realize he had stabbed Tomasz or cut another boy’s coat in the heart area. When he saw the attackers flee, he thought he had injured one of them because he saw someone „limping” away. 

Tomasz’s mother had called him when he was 20 minutes late to come back home and he had said that he was on his way home, sounding happy. However, just ten minutes later, Amies stabbed him, leading to his death the next day in the hospital.

Witnesses for the prosecution stated that Tomasz was not part of the group that was following Amies, but arrived at the scene just moments before he was stabbed. The prosecutor also acknowledged that the group was not innocent, as they discussed hitting the Amies, but argued that the defendant’s assertion that he was being attacked was false.

After delivering the fatal blow, he allegedly bragged: „I took care of your boy.”

The prosecutor, Mr. McKone, questioned how the defendant could have sustained only a minor injury to his thumb if he was attacked by five physically fit young men who punched and kicked him all over his body.

On Monday, the Crown Court in Newcastle found the 15-year-old Leighton Amies guilty of murder.

The sentence will be determined at the next hearing, scheduled for June. The perpetrator and the victim did not know each other previously and lived in different places. The family of the deceased boy moved to the UK in 2012.

Author: Patrycja Bodzek-Kurzyńska

Photo: Northumbria Police