'Stabbed boy's blood spattered across me'

A boy of 15 told a court today how his face was spattered with the blood of a pupil who was stabbed to death in a school corridor.

The teenager said he was so close that the youth charged with the murder of Luke Walmsley, 14, almost brushed his elbow as he pulled out the knife.

Watched by Luke's parents, Jayne and Paul, the witness brought his arm forward to re-enact the fatal blow.

He showed how Luke clutched his chest. Then the witness pointed from his left ear down to his mouth where the dead boy's blood had landed on his face.

The boy was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of a 16-year-old who denies murdering Luke. The accused, who was 15 at the time, cannot be named for legal reasons. Luke was stabbed in a corridor outside his science class at Birkbeck School in North Somercotes, Lincolnshire, last November.

Several schoolboy witnesses are due to give evidence via a video link played on large screens at Nottingham Crown Court.

Mr and Mrs Walmsley wept yesterday as they watched CCTV footage of their son staggering along the corridor immediately after the stabbing.

Today they watched as the witness, who was 14 at the time, described how he had been standing in the corridor next to the defendant. He was waiting to enter the science lab as Luke left the room after his lesson.

The boy said: "Luke came out and I saw the defendant step forward, and it looked like he punched him there (indicating the middle of his chest).

"Then he pulled it out (the knife) and I had blood on my face, and I realised what he had done.

"Luke put his hand there ( indicating his chest) and the defendant hid his knife behind his back.

"One of the teachers came out and said, 'What have you got behind your back', and the defendant pulled the knife out in his hand. He brought the knife out and he shrugged his shoulders-I think. I was a bit shocked and I was looking at (the defendant). I thought, 'Why did he do it?'

"The defendant seemed just as normal, going around talking to people just like another pupil before then."

The court has heard that the defendant had thrust the knife into Luke "at least to the hilt" using "considerable force".

Yvonne Coen, QC, prosecuting, has told the jury that the two boys had fallen out "for no particular reason" and "it was no secret that there was no love lost between them".

The defendant is alleged to have told friends over the previous two months that he was going to stab Luke.

The trial continues.