Boy, 14, ‘stabbed schoolboy Alfie Lewis to death in front of primary pupils as they left for the day’

A 15-year-old boy was stabbed through the heart by a boy of 14 in “full view” of children leaving a primary school in Leeds, a trial has heard.

Alfie Lewis asked the alleged attacker “what are you doing” before a kitchen knife was plunged into his chest in Horsforth in November 2023, prosecutors said.

Alfie, who had been walking down the street to meet friends at the end of the school day, died later in hospital while the defendant fled the scene, Craig Hassall KC, prosecuting, said.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is on trial at Leeds Crown Court for murder. He denies the charge.

Mr Hassall said the defendant, now 15, attacked Alfie with a 13cm long kitchen knife he had brought from his home.

He said witnesses recalled Alfie looking “surprised and shocked” and saying to the defendant: “What are you doing?” as the incident unfolded close to St Margaret’s Primary School, in Town Street, Horsforth, just before 3pm on November 7 2023.

The prosecutor said: “He was approached by [the defendant], and stabbed twice – once in the chest and once in the leg. He collapsed and died in the road close to the primary school in full view of scores of pupils leaving school and the people who were waiting to collect them.”

The prosecutor said a post-mortem examination revealed that the fatal stab injury was a 14cm deep wound to Alfie’s chest which punctured his heart.

Mr Hassall told the jury: “[The defendant], then fled the scene, dropping the murder weapon in the road close to the primary school.”

The prosecutor said the defendant has already admitted possessing the knife.

He added: “As we understand it, [the defendant] will accept that Alfie was killed by the knife from his kitchen drawer at home, but will say that, at all times, he was acting in self-defence.”

Mr Hassall told the jury of seven women and five men: “But all of the witnesses are consistent however in that none of them suggest that Alfie was in any way the aggressor on November 7.

“None of them suggest that it was that Alfie that attacked (the defendant). Several of the witnesses speak of Alfie seeming surprised and shocked at what (the defendant) was doing.

“Several of them recall hearing Alfie ask of (the defendant): ‘What are you doing?’”

Mr Hassall said a friend of the defendant said he walked away from him just before the incident and he then heard Alfie say ”chill out”, before seeing his friend stab Alfie twice.

He said two other children described the defendant “going purposefully towards Alfie and then attacking him while Alfie tried to defend himself”.

The prosecutor said one woman on the afternoon school run “did not see Alfie do anything to (the defendant) to start the fight and said that Alfie had not raised a fist to him”.

He said the woman had been walking in the same direction as Alfie “and said that everything seemed quite happy and normal”.

Mr Hassall said another woman described a “one-sided fight” where it “didn’t really look like that other guy was fighting back really”.

The prosecutor told the jury about two previous incidents involving Alfie and the defendant.

He said one was in July 2023, when Alfie intervened in a fight involving the defendant, and the second happened on Halloween, when Alfie claimed the defendant threw a firework at him.

In recorded video evidence played on Monday, a 15-year-old girl told the jury that the fight in July was between her younger brother and the defendant.

She recalled that, when she was hit in the face by the defendant, Alfie pushed him and said, “Why are you hitting a girl?”

She said the defendant fell to the floor but Alfie helped him up and they shook hands.

The same girl told the court how Alfie told her how he stole the defendant’s fireworks on October 31 after the defendant threw a lit one at him.

Asked about the events of November 7, the girl said someone told her Alfie has been stabbed and she saw him on the floor.

The girl said she ran over to him and said: “Alfie, don’t die on me. Please wake up.”

The trial continues on Tuesday.