Men and youths ‘hunted down’ and murdered boy with kitchen knife, court told

Birmingham Crown Court heard Dea-John Reid was fatally stabbed on May 31 last year.

A forensics officer takes photographs at the scene on College Road, Kingstanding, north of Birmingham (Jacob King/PA) (PA Archive)

A “pack” of two men and three youths chased a 14-year-old boy through a park before he was fatally stabbed after one shouted they were “going to get the black bastard”, a murder trial has heard.

Birmingham Crown Court heard Dea-John Reid was knifed by one of the two 15-year-old defendants in front of a number of witnesses on May 31 last year, with one elderly woman screaming: “They have stabbed him, they have stabbed him.”

George Khan, 39, and Michael Shields, 36, are accused of being the two older members of the group who “hunted down” the teenage victim in broad daylight in the Kingstanding area of Birmingham, with their alleged actions branded “a disgrace” by the prosecution.

Jurors heard the two adult defendants acted “collectively” with three teenagers, two aged 14 and one aged 16 at the time of the incident, and behaved “like a pack, chasing down their prey”.

Footage of the moment that Dea-John was fatally knifed on College Road was played to the jury, which the prosecution said showed all five defendants chasing him and then running away after he had been stabbed.

Opening the case for the prosecution on Wednesday, the Crown’s QC Richard Wormald said: “The evidence you are about to hear shows that acting together as a group, they went to look for Dea-John Reid and after finding him in a park in Kingstanding, chased and caught up with him.

“He was then stabbed in the chest.

“The prosecution’s case is that all five are responsible for his murder because the evidence quite clearly shows that all five acted together; they acted collectively.

“It can be inferred from the evidence that all must have intended to cause Dea-John serious harm, and each knew when they began their pursuit of him that such harm was likely.”

Mr Wormald said the 15-year-old who is alleged to have fatally stabbed Dea-John in a “revenge attack” had armed himself with a kitchen knife before Khan allegedly drove all five to “hunt him down”.

Turning to Khan and Shields, Mr Wormald said: “They are much older – in their late 30s – and you as you listen to the evidence you may think that their behaviour in positively participating in the attack was nothing short of a disgrace.”

The defendants acted like a pack, chasing down their prey.

Prosecutor Richard Wormald QC

Continuing his opening, the prosecutor said: “The killing happened in broad daylight.

“It was a revenge attack for events that had happened earlier in the day involving the three younger defendants.

“They sought help in the form of the two older male defendants.

“They gathered together in a car driven by George Khan and searched for the group, of which Dea-John Reid was a part.”

Mr Wormald told jurors Khan “carried the plan to seek retribution forwards”, and “actively encouraged the attack” once Dea-John was found.

He continued: “Eventually these male defendants found their intended victim and got out of the car. Dea-John Reid was chased.

“It was a group attack, during which they each played their part, running after Dea-John Reid, blocking off his escape routes, and enabling (one of the youths) to chase down and fatally stab Dea-John Reid to the left side of his chest.

“The defendants acted like a pack, chasing down their prey.”

Mr Wormald added: “Having carried out the attack, the group all then made off in haste – not one of them offered any support or comfort to Dea-John Reid.

“They simply left him to die.”

Mr Wormald said one witness, who had alighted from a bus outside a chip shop on College Road, had seen “about five guys chasing a black boy, with one of them shouting that they were ‘going to get the black bastard’.”

The prosecutor said another witness had spoken of how he saw Dea-John “hold his stomach and collapse” after seeing two white males chase him.

Shields, of Alvis Walk, Castle Bromwich, and Khan, of Newstead Road, Birmingham, and the three teenagers, who cannot be named because of their age, all deny murder.

Hollie Davies, 36, of Waldon Walk, Birmingham, is accused of assisting an offender. She denies the charge.

The trial continues.