A 15-year-old has been convicted of murdering a software engineer, stabbed in the chest after a row at an Asda supermarket.
Ian Kirwan, 53, was killed after challenging a group of youths for “messing about” in the toilets at a store in Redditch, Worcestershire, on 8 March last year.
Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court cleared three other youths – two aged 14 and one aged 16 – of murder and manslaughter but found them guilty of violent disorder.
A fifth boy, aged 16, was acquitted of murder, manslaughter and violent disorder, having claimed he was not involved in the fatal confrontation and could not have predicted it.
High Court judge Mr Justice Fraser told the 15-year-old who was convicted of murder that he would be given the children’s equivalent of a life sentence at a hearing on 15 February.
Mr Kirwan, an artificial intelligence engineer who worked at Jaguar Land Rover’s Coventry headquarters, was knifed at 7.19pm and died less than an hour before he made it to the hospital, the court was told during the 10-week trial.
He was an “unfortunate member of the public in the wrong place at the wrong time”, the court heard.
All five youths, aged 13 to 15 and who cannot be named for legal reasons, had denied murder, an alternative charge of manslaughter and violent disorder.
The prosecution said the youths murdered Mr Kirwan, who was shopping for a light switch, after he challenged them for messing about in the supermarket’s customer toilets.
Jurors were shown CCTV footage of the attack, in which Mr Kirwarn can be seen getting stabbed in the heart.
Prosecutors said the film showed three members of the group handling two separate knives before the fatal stabbing.
The group travelled to Redditch from the Birmingham area by train and wore face coverings on the journey. Jurors were asked to determine whether the boys were acting as a pack.
The boy convicted of murder, who appeared in court by video-link, had admitted stabbing Mr Kirwan. He showed little reaction as the jury returned its guilty verdict, glancing to his left and then at a floor, before continuing to watch other verdicts being returned.
Prosecutors said the boy had claimed he suffered from mental disorders at the time of the killing which substantially impaired his ability to form a rational judgement.
The prosecution accepted he suffered from mental disorders but argued he was instead influenced at the time by a behaviour disorder.
In the wake of Mr Kirwan’s death last year, a family member told The Sun: “Ian was the most fantastic, wonderful guy. He was caring, considerate – he would go out of his way for anyone.
“His life has been lost due to some idiots with a knife. If anything good comes from this, it is young people putting down their knives ... There needs to be an amnesty on knives.”
