A 14-year-old accused of murdering a schoolboy went out with a knife “hoping” to stab someone, jurors have been told.

It is accepted that the accused boy took a knife from the kitchen as he left his home on the evening of Monday October 3, last year.

In a confrontation after darkness that evening he used the knife to inflict a single stab wound to the chest of Tomasz Oleszak, in a park in Gateshead.

Tomasz's death was confirmed in hospital the following morning.

Read more: Boy accused of murder went out with knife ‘hoping’ to stab someone, court told

A second knife blow wielded in the same incident as Tomasz was fatally injured ripped the jacket of a friend of his, who was standing alongside him at the time.

The court heard that teenager just managed to jump backwards to avoid being injured himself.

In closing speeches in the trial of the alleged killer, at Newcastle Crown Court, differing accounts for the culpability of the knife-carrier have been given to the jury.

Prosecuting counsel Peter McKone KC, said the accused schoolboy went out with a knife “hoping” to stab someone.

He said that within three hours of leaving home with the serrated steak knife, placed in the chest pocket of his body warmer, he used it to fatally wound Tomasz, in Whitehills Nature Park, off Springwell Estate.

Tomasz had just joined a group of youths who had followed the defendant into the park as he was walking his girlfriend home, following her dance class earlier that evening.

Mr McKone told the jury: “The prosecution say that (the defendant) took the knife out hoping he could use it to stab someone.”

He conceded the victim’s group was “not blameless” and that the defendant had faced “hostility” from them.

Read more: Accused teenager in Gateshead murder trial says he was being followed

But Mr McKone said the Crown does not accept he (the defendant) was acting in self-defence in stabbing Tomasz and slashing the other boy’s jacket, after he was knocked to the ground by members of the group following him and his girlfriend, who had previously gone out with one of their number.

Mr McKone said: “(The defendant) was in anger when he used that knife.

“He used the hostility to him as his chance to use his knife to stab someone, a chance he had been looking for since he took the knife out that evening.”

In his defence, it is the defendant’s case that the stabbing was an accident after he came under attack, taking out the knife and lashing out with it in a bid to fend off his assailants.

Mr McKone said the 8cm-deep chest wound could not have been inflicted by the boy “randomly” waving his arms around.

The defendant, now 15, denies murder and attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to the boy whose jacket was slashed.

But he has admitted unlawful possession of the knife.

The jury was told that following the fateful wound, the defendant told the gang: “I have wetted your boy”.

Mr McKone said: “He wanted them to know he had stabbed one of their number.

“It was a boast. A person doesn’t say: ‘I have wetted your boy,’ if the stabbing was a reluctant act of self-defence or a terrible accident.”

Peter Makepeace KC, for the defendant, began his closing address by describing Tomasz’s death as, “an indescribable tragedy”.

Mr Makepeace said the defendant had not been looking for trouble and he asked the jury to put themselves in his situation, at the age of 14, coming under attack by a group, in the dark, not knowing if any of them was armed.

He said: “This is a 14-year-old under group attack and having to make terrible decisions under a moment’s notice.”

Mr Makepeace asked the jury if the prosecution has made them “certain” the defendant was not acting in self-defence.

Read next:

* Tomasz Oleszak: Gateshead murder accused 'did not stab him on purpose'

* Teen accused Tomasz Oleszak murder in Gateshead gives evidence

* Tomasz Oleszak murder trial: Teenager accused of Gateshead killing

For more quality journalism, subscribe to The Northern Echo for £1.50 a week here. 

He said they may be certain he was not acting without any specific intent to murder.

The trial judge, Mr Justice Martin Spencer, is due to conclude his summing up of evidence from the trial tomorrow (Friday April 14), after which jurors will be sent out to begin their deliberations.

Proceeding.