Off-duty police officer saw parts of incident

FOOTAGE of the moments that 18-year-old Joshua Taylor was fatally stabbed in a Hinckley street have been shown to a jury.

Joshua’s 17-year-old friend, who denies murder, is on trial at Leicester Crown Court.

The defendant, who cannot be named because he is a juvenile, also denies possessing two knives during the alleged killing in Sword Drive.

He is claiming he acted in self-defence in the early hours of Monday, October 7 last year.

Vanessa Marshall QC, prosecuting, told the jury: “It just so happened that an off-duty police officer, Pc Alexander Wood (who at the time lived nearby) witnessed part of this incident. “He got home from work at about 12.35am.

“At approximately 12.45am he thought he could hear shouting. He couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from.”

The prosecutor said the officer then heard the noise becoming louder and the words were “getting more menacing.”

He heard shouting that someone was “gonna have it”. Miss Marshall said Pc Wood then decided to record what was happening, on his mobile phone, at 12.53am.

He stopped about a minute later to call for police assistance as the situation was “quickly escalating”.

Footage and stills of the moments leading up to the alleged murder were shown to the jury.

The 17-year-old, who was holding a large knife, is allegedly seen making a punching motion towards Joshua’s chest, although the actual impact was not visible.

The court heard on Tuesday last week that Joshua was also seen to have a knife on him earlier that evening.

Miss Marshall said: “Pc Wood called the police at 12.55am and stood relaying information to the call handler. Pc Wood saw a person, obviously Joshua, lying on the road motionless.”

He then went to help give first aid with another off-duty officer, Pc Kier Wilson, who chanced upon the scene.

Pc Wilson alerted Pc Wood to a small silver-coloured kitchen knife with a blade about four inches in length about three feet away from where Joshua was lying.

Miss Marshall said: “It’s accepted by the prosecution that this knife was likely to have come from Joshua Taylor’s kitchen at home and likely to be the knife that he had earlier produced at Morrisons (to one of his friends) as his DNA is on it.

“However, it’s not accepted by the prosecution that Joshua Taylor was holding this knife in his hand, let alone threatening to use it on the defendant immediately prior to the stabbing by the defendant.

“The knife could have easily fallen out of an item of his clothing, either when he threw his coat down in the middle of the road, or when he collapsed to the ground.”

The defendant was said to have dumped a larger knife – the alleged murder weapon – underneath a car in a local driveway after fleeing the scene.

The jury also heard a recording of a 999 call from one of the teenagers’ friends, who witnessed the incident.

He appeared distressed as he told an ambulance operator there had been “a stabbing to the chest” and the police were already on the scene.

The ambulance arrived at 1.03am and despite efforts to save Joshua, with surgical procedures by two doctors at the roadside, he was pronounced dead at 1.25am.