Michael Warham murder trial: Teenager was stabbed in the heart on Shrewsbury street, court told

Michael Warham, 16, was fatally wounded when violence flared in Wayford Close, Shrewsbury, on August 1 last year. The youth, from Merseyside, died three days later from his injuries.

Declan Graves, 20, from Liverpool, is accused of killing him during the incident that involved a clash between two groups of young people on the Meole Brace estate.

His trial began yesterday at Stafford Crown Court.

Miss Rachel Brand, prosecuting, said the stabbing followed an altercation outside a flat in a nearby street and one group of people chasing a second group.

Miss Brand told the jury: “It was on August 1 just after 9.30pm when a young man called Michael Warham was She said the victim was “stabbed and left for dead in the street where he fell”..

“This happened in Shrewsbury on the Meole Brace Estate. An ambulance was called by local people and he was taken to hospital.

“He was stabbed twice in his upper body.

“There were two wounds close together, to his upper abdomen and lower chest area and one of these wounds had penetrated his heart,” said Miss Brand.

She said he also suffered a less serious wound during the attack.

“He was whisked to hospital and there were valiant efforts to save his life both at the A&E at the local hospital and later in the theatre where he underwent surgery,” she said.

“Sadly despite the efforts of these doctors and nurses they could not save him and he died some days following.

Mr Warham was 16-years-old and the youngest of 14 brothers and sisters. “We say that the person who stabbed him was Declan Graves who was 19 at the time,” Miss Brand added.

She said the victim, of Bootle, had spent the day in Shrewsbury with a group of friends and they had visited the McDonalds at the neighbouring retail park before visiting a flat in the area.

The defendant was also seen in the vicinity in the company of other people with links to Liverpool.

Miss Brand told the jury that various closed circuit television cameras in the community had captured some of the movements of the parties leading up to and after the fatal stabbing.

She said the weapon used was recovered from the front garden of a property, in Stapleton Road, where the defendant had knocked on the door and told the occupants that someone was “ trying to kill” him.

She told the court that the group he was with scouring the streets trying to find him after they became separated during the confrontation.

Graves denies murder.

The trial, which is expected to last three weeks, continues.