Teenagers accused of Telford murder 'told friend they had stabbed someone'

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was giving evidence at Stafford Crown Court where three teenagers, who also cannot be identified due to their ages, are on trial for the murder of 26-year-old Peter Cairns.

Mr Cairns died after an attack in Silkin Way, Telford, on June 11 last year.

On Friday the youngster told the court his two friends were "unusual, looking over their shoulder and then both said they had stabbed someone".

But Stafford Crown Court also heard the friend had given two contrasting statements to the police, one two weeks after the attack on June 30, and another on February 2 this year.

Both mentioned meeting up his friends. In the first statement no mention of "strange behaviour" was made but in the second he said they were "panicky and looking over their shoulders and said 'it doesn't matter' when asked what was wrong".

Mr Cairns was found on a footpath on June 11 2021 with serious injuries from a stab wound, and died in hospital later that evening.

The court viewed CCTV and video footage of two of the accused in the witnesses' house at Warrensway on the same day of the attack lying on the bed, one of them playing with an ornamental knife stored in the bedroom which he had permission to handle.

They were then seen "play fighting and wrestling" at a recreation area outside the house.

One of them was still carrying the same knife and another a wooden pole, but Gurdeep Garcha, defending said at no time was it anything but "banter" and "light hearted".

He said: "It was a regular occurrence for the three to get together at the home of one of them and to regularly hang out outside of the house

"There is no evidence that this was anything other than messing about or play fighting and when it was requested that the ornamental knife was given back it willingly was."

It was one of three times the witness would see his friends - one of whom he described as "a brother" - that day and he told the court the last time he saw them was outside a local shop by an alley when he had gone to do some shopping for his parents.

He said: "They were behaving unusually, looking over their shoulder and being really weird. Then one of them said they had stabbed someone and the other one said the same."

The court also heard a statement read out by the brother of the witness who said he was playing on his X box in his bedroom when one of the accused came in.

It said: "He came in and sat on the bed and asked if I was ok and how my day had been. I then noticed he took a white t-shirt out of his pocket and wrapped it around his head, saying does it make it look like it was me."

The case continues.