THE youth who committed the fatal stabbing of Jack Woodley told a murder trial jury today: “It was an accident.”

He added: “The whole thing, it should never have gone into him and he should never have been stabbed.”

Giving evidence at Newcastle Crown Court the 15-year-old defendant said as Mr Woodley was being attacked by others after leaving the Houghton Feast funfair, in Houghton-le-Spring, he (the defendant) took out the knife from the waist band of his jogging bottoms, after others shouted: “Get out the chopper.”

He had earlier said he had heard that either Mr Woodley or one of his friends may have a knife.

Asked by defence counsel Nicholas Lumley what he then did, he said: “I pulled out the knife to scare away Jack’s friends and scare away Jack or scare other people off.

“I was holding the knife out in my fully extended right hand.”

Asked what he recalled next, he said: “Seeing feathers in the air and looking at the knife and it was red.

“It wasn’t the whole of it that was red, it was just the tip.”

Asked what the feathers were from, he said it must have been from Mr Woodley’s clothing.

Read more: Jack Woodley trial: Teenager died after stab wound to the back

He was then asked by Mr Lumley: “Did you hold the knife towards Jack?”

The youth replied: “I couldn’t say. It wasn’t my intention to hurt Jack or even stab him, but it happened so fast. There was a lot happening.”

He was asked by Mr Lumley: “Do you accept killing him?

In reply he said: “Yes, I do.”

But he said he could not recall how the knife went into Mr Woodley’s back.

“Either I have stumbled forwards or he has stumbled back and the tip of it was extremely sharp and it wouldn’t have needed much force to go inside.”

He said the only reason he had pulled out the knife or even gone to get it from his home earlier that evening was that he thought Mr Woodley or one of his friends had a knife.

But he said he had not seen anyone else with a knife.

“Things happen fast and if I didn’t pull out the knife it could have been the same thing, but for a different child.”

He was asked if he was saying he had to defend himself by holding out the knife.

Mr Lumley said: “Did you deliberately stick the knife into him?”

“No, it was an accident. The whole thing it should never have gone into him and he should never have been stabbed.

“The whole thing. It was an accident.

“I never pulled the knife out with the intention to hurt Jack.”

He admitted he then ran off and threw the knife into some bushes, before going home to change clothing.

After that he took a younger relative home from the feast, as was pre-planned, telling her on the way that someone had been stabbed, without revealing he was responsible.

The youth was giving evidence at the start of the defence case in the trial of ten youths accused of taking part in the killing.

Although he has pleaded guilty to manslaughter he denies murder.

His nine co-accused, aged between 14 and 17 at the time of the incident, on Saturday October 16, last year, also deny murder.

Mr Woodley, 18, died from a stab wound to the back in hospital the following day.

The trial has already heard the youth who admits inflicting the stabbing has a juvenile court conviction for possessing an offensive weapon, a 10-in hunting knife, which was recovered from him by police after an incident in December 2020.

That conviction was from another part of the country before his father moved with him to the North-East.

The trial continues tomorrow.

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