A 16-year-old boy charged with murdering a teenager in Brighton has appeared in the dock at Lewes Crown Court weeks before he is due to go on trial by jury.
The trial of the boy, from Southwick, is due to start on Monday 19 February.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded not guilty to murder when he appeared at the same court by video link on Friday 15 December.
He was charged with fatally stabbing 17-year-old Mostafa Momand in Queen’s Road, Brighton, on Thursday 5 October.
The young defendant was also arraigned – or formally charged – with three other offences.
He denied threatening Steven Slark with a machete in Portland Road, Hove, in July.
He denied threatening the same man with a hammer in Southwick in August.
And he denied having a knife in Queen’s Road, Brighton, on the day when Mostafa Momand was fatally stabbed.
Judge Christine Laing, the honorary recorder of Brighton and Hove, remanded the boy in custody until the start of his trial on Monday 19 February.
He deines a lot
Indeed, as is it right to do so. If the evidence is reasonable, those pleas are not going to help him when it comes to sentencing. What kind of broken person do you have to be a young 16-year-old, ignorant of the world, to get yourself in a situation where you feel the need to carry weapons around and brandish them towards people?
Sad situation all round.
I think we have to acknowledge that our society in the UK is now far beyond the point of any return to what we once knew. Obviously, these people are all known to each other.