JURORS in the trial of a teenager accused of murder have been asked to consider what turned “a decent enough kid into someone who would take a knife into a school”.

Alfie Lewis, 15, was stabbed to death “in full view” of pupils leaving a primary school in Horsforth last November.

A 15-year-old boy who has gone on trial over the attack denies murder, claiming he was scared he was about to be attacked when he pulled out the knife.

Giving his closing speech to Leeds Crown Court jurors on Wednesday, prosecutor Craig Hassall KC said all the witnesses who saw the incident were “consistent”.

He added: “None of them suggest that Alfie was in any way the aggressor, none of them suggest it was Alfie that attacked (the defendant).

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Tributes to AlfieTributes to Alfie (Image: Telegraph & Argus)

“None of the witnesses heard Alfie shouting at or threatening (the defendant). Not even (the defendant) says Alfie shouted at or threatened him.”

Mr Hassall said some witnesses “describe Alfie trying in vain to defend himself from (the defendant’s) knife”.

Jurors have heard Alfie had been walking down the street to meet friends at the end of the school day when the defendant, who was 14 at the time, attacked him with a 13cm long kitchen knife he had brought from his home.

Mr Hassall 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.

Nicholas Lumley KC, defending, said the prosecution had “tried to rewrite history a little to make Alfie out to be something he wasn’t”, telling jurors that “of course there was some good in him” but his former headteacher had said other children were “frightened of him”.

Mr Lumley then asked: “What turned (the defendant) from a decent enough young kid into someone who would take a knife into a school of all places?”

He said the answer was in an interaction between the two boys on Halloween – a week before Alfie’s death.

The defendant said in his evidence that on that night he walked past Alfie’s house with a bag of fireworks and Alfie said to him: “Give me the bag or something worse than last time is going to happen.”

He said he believed he saw the handle of a weapon as Alfie pulled up his hoodie.

Mr Lumley said: “All (the defendant) can really say is that ‘I felt, in the heat of the moment, when you weren’t there members of the jury, I instinctively did what I thought I had to do. I did not mean to kill him, I did not mean to hurt him so badly he was seriously injured’.

“We as his lawyers do not condone knife crime or murder, that’s not what lawyers do. Alfie did not deserve to die, not one bit.”

The trial continues.