Shane Boyd, 16, jailed for life for stabbing boy in row over Xbox

February 20th, 2009, 21:20 Posted By: wraggster

A 16-year-old boy who stabbed another teenager to death in a row over a borrowed computer games console has been jailed for life.

Shane Boyd, who had been the subject of an Asbo for violent behaviour from the age of 12, wanted revenge after discovering that Conor Black, also 16, had borrowed an Xbox computer games console and not returned it.

Boyd sought out Black outside a house party in August last year, before hitting him over the head with a can of beer and stabbing him in the back with a kitchen knife.

As the teenager lay dying Boyd paraded around the street boasting: “I’m the best — I’m the man.”

Judge Goldstone told him: “Your attack on Conor was truly wicked and shows you in your true colour as a coward.

“You gloated and boasted to anyone who you thought would have been impressed by what you had done. How often is it said that a bully has all the hallmarks of a coward, and the reverse is true too.”

When he was just 12 years old, Boyd had been made the subject of an Asbo banning him from inciting or encouraging or using violence or threatening behaviour in public places.

The court heard that he had breached this order on three separate occasions before the stabbing on August 15 last year.

The judge said: “In truth you thought no more of having that knife in your possession than you would a wallet or house key. Carrying a knife is no way to resolve a minor dispute about a Playstation [sic]. You do not know or show any respect for authority.

“Will young people like you never realise that the public and the courts will not tolerate those who carry knives with no thought of the consequences?”

Conor Black, who was taking a college course in joinery, was described as a young man of “good character and a likeable person”. After being stabbed outside the party in Harphurhey, he had managed to run away before collapsing. He died in an ambulance on the way to hospital.

After being arrested Boyd told police: “Everything was just an accident — I didn’t mean to harm him.”

He denied murder, and was convicted after a trial last month. The court also heard that Boyd’s cousin, John, intimidated witnesses and made death threats against those who saw the incident.

John Boyd, 21, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and perverting the course of justice, and was jailed for three years.

Conor’s aunt, Janice Black, said: “All the hopes and dreams of a family were crushed when Conor’s life was stolen in that terrible, violent way.”

Detective Chief Inspector Serena Kennedy said: “This terrible case shows the devastating impact that knives can have. One boy’s family is grieving the loss of his life, and today the defendant, himself a boy, will start spending his life in prison.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle5774300.ece

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