Teenager stabbed young man before shouting 'this is a warning', court told

Harry Burkett, 21, from Grays, collapsed in the street in Clacton after suffering a single stab wound on the night of Saturday, September 11, last year.

He was pronounced dead at Colchester Hospital a short time later.

A 16-year-old boy, from Clacton, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with murder.

Giving evidence during a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, Alfie Barham, 23, told a jury he travelled to Clacton earlier that day alongside Harry.

He said Harry had planned to meet a girl he had been speaking to over social media.

Mr Barham said after the pair arrived, they drank bottles of beer at the seafront while waiting to meet the girl and her friend.

He told the jury they walked to the girl’s home to meet her and her friend, before the group of four headed back to the town centre and entered a Weatherspoon’s pub together.

Telling the jury about Mr Burkett’s mood at the pub, he said: “Harry was in a good mood, especially when we’d had a few drinks, there was nothing. We were just having a good time. We wanted to go up there have a good time and that’s what we were going up there for.”

Harry Burkett

Mr Barham said after leaving the pub, the group failed to gain entry to a nearby nightclub as Mr Burkett did not have a form of ID.

He told the jury he and Mr Burkett split from the two girls, before he was approached by a man and offered drugs.

He said he made a withdrawal from a cashpoint and purchased a small amount of cocaine.

Mr Barham said he and Mr Burkett took the cocaine at a nearby seating area and socialised with two strangers, a male and female named Callum and Bailey.

“At this time we’d had quite a few drinks, so we were just talking to anyone really,” he said.

“Harry would always talk to anyone anyway, he would always try and make friends with anyone.

“We starting talking and we ended up going off with them, because me and Harry were on our own so we thought we may as well stay with these, a bit of company.”

Mr Barham told the jury he purchased four beers from a small shop, where “a few other people” approached them.

“They were getting along with me and Harry, so there was nothing to worry about,” he said.

He said the atmosphere remained “good”, aside from a brief argument between Mr Burkett and the girl he knew as Bailey.

Mr Barham said he became separated from Mr Burkett.

He said the atmosphere changed after he witnessed one of the group running away “for no reason”.

“I remember turning around and the boy was just sprinting,” he said.

“Everyone else started running and Bailey said to me: ‘Oh come on Alf’.

“I didn’t know what was going on I didn’t get told anything, I’ve just followed everyone else.”

He said the group stopped at a “white building” and he saw Mr Burkett again a few minutes later.

“There was probably about five or six [people] and then Harry turned up,” he said.

“I think he was with two people,” he said.

Mr Barham said: “It felt like there was something a bit on edge.

“I think it was how the group started closing in, sort of surrounding.”

Mr Barham said “three or four boys” turned up at the scene and the atmosphere became “quite tense”.

“I remember one of the boys saying something to Harry, sort of a bit putting him on edge,” he said.

“I don’t know what he was saying but I remember I think he was basically trying to intimidate him.”

He said the boy was wearing a black coat, looked “quite stocky” and had straight black hair.

“He was just closing in on [Harry], so like cornering him,” he said.

Of the other members of the group, Mr Barham said: “Some of them stayed out of it, at the time there was maybe two or three of them who huddled around Harry as well.

“Then I hear the boy say to Harry: ‘Come on, let’s fight’.”

Mr Barham said he saw Mr Burkett try to hit the boy over the head with a beer bottle, as he was "scared and wanted to get away from the situation”.

He said the bottle did not smash and Mr Burkett struck out with two punches.

“That’s when the boy started pulling out the knife”, he said.

“I think he had it tucked sort of near his waist.”

Mr Barham said the boy moved to stab Mr Burkett in the chest.

“Because he was wearing a white T-shirt, I could see the blood,” he said.

He said Mr Burkett was “shocked” and fled the scene “when he realised he’d been hurt”.

Read more: Teenage boy captured on CCTV 'armed and ready to strike', murder trial hears

Prosecutor Simon Spence QC asked: “As Harry ran off, did you hear the boy say anything?”

Mr Barham said: “He said: ‘This is a warning, this is a f****** warning’.”

The witness said he realised his friend had been stabbed and was left “in shock”.

“Harry ran off, but I didn’t know which way Harry went, I was just in so much shock,” he said.

“There was so many emotions going through me I just didn’t know what was going on or what I was doing.

“Once I’d snapped out of it I realised Harry had run off and I needed to find him, so that’s what I did, but I couldn’t.”

When asked about the boy’s reaction, Mr Barham said: “They just all remained there. He remained there as if nothing had even happened. He didn’t run off or anything.”

The teenage boy denies charges of murder, possession of an offensive weapon and possession of a knife.

• The trial continues.