Teenager admits manslaughter over stab death of 15-year-old boy

A 15-YEAR-OLD boy has admitted stabbing another teenager to death in an incident described by prosecutors as “self-defence gone too far”.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was due to stand trial for the murder of 15-year-old Sam Baker at Sheffield Crown Court yesterday. He entered a guilty plea to an alternative charge of manslaughter instead, which was accepted by the prosecution.

Sam died after he was stabbed in the Lowedges area of Sheffield on May 24.

Few details of the case emerged in court but David Brooke QC, prosecuting, said the boy has claimed it was Sam who brought the knife to the scene and began the incident by attacking him.

The boy also claimed he was robbed at knifepoint by Sam in a different incident, he said.

Mr Brooke said it was not possible to prove conclusively who had brought the knife. He said: “This is self-defence gone too far, with the use of a knife.”

The prosecutor said that Sam had a difficult background and his family had been “perfectly candid” about the trouble he had been involved with in the past.

The judge, Mr Justice Nicklin, said: “What this defendant has accepted, by his plea, is that an unlawful act took place in the heat of the moment.”

The boy will be sentenced on October 11.

Sam’s death shocked the city and came amid a spate of kniferelated deaths in Sheffield earlier this year. It prompted a campaign by sister newspaper,

The campaign, called Drop The Knife, has been backed by MPs Louise Haigh, Jared O’Mara and Gill Furniss, as well as schools and community figures.