A teenager accused of murdering a 16-year-old “did not lay a finger” on him, a trial has heard.
Donald Findlay KC reminded jurors that another teenager – 18-year-old Cole Turley – has admitted murdering Kayden Moy, who died after an incident at Irvine beach in North Ayrshire on May 17 last year.
Mr Findlay, representing accused Jay Stewart, said there is “not a scrap of evidence” that he played any part in Kayden’s death.
Turley pleaded guilty before the trial to murdering Kayden, 16, from East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire.
Stewart, 18, and a 15-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons are on trial at the High Court in Glasgow accused of murdering Kayden.
It is alleged that while acting with Turley, Stewart and the 15-year-old pursued Kayden, causing him to fall to the ground, and repeatedly stabbed him on the body with a knife, leaving him so badly injured that he died.
In his closing speech to the court on Wednesday, Mr Findlay urged jurors to acquit Stewart.
He told them: “The one thing we know beyond a shadow of doubt is that Jay Stewart did not lay a finger on Kayden Moy.
“He was not within yards of Kayden Moy when Kayden Moy was stabbed. He had no physical involvement whatsoever in the death of Kayden Moy.”
He added: “He did not go near him, he did not offer any kind of protection or security, there is not a single solitary scrap of evidence that Jay Stewart played any active part in the death of Kayden Moy.”
The court previously heard Turley, Stewart and the 15-year-old were members of the Murray Boys group while Kayden and others were part of the Himshie group in East Kilbride.
Mr Findlay said there had been confrontations between the groups in the past and there was nothing to suggest that day in May last year would be any different until Turley “upped the ante” and produced a knife.
He said there was a confrontation between the groups at the beach but nobody expected it to go further.
Mr Findlay told the court: “There is shouting, exchanges of abuse, but at that point in time it is no more than that and that’s as far as it should have gone till one event, and that was Cole Turley produced a knife.
“At that point the character of this changes but up till that point in time it is no different from any confrontation they have had previously.”
Mr Findlay also told jurors that according to forensic evidence, there was “not a nanogram” of evidence to show Stewart ever had the knife in his possession.
He said: “There is no evidence linking him to the murder weapon. There is no evidence that he even saw Cole Turley with the knife in his possession until Cole Turley suddenly produced it.”
Ian Duguid KC, representing the 15-year-old, later pointed jurors to evidence from a witness who had told the trial he heard the 15-year-old saying “take us a box” during the initial confrontation at the beach, as in fist-fighting.
Mr Duguid said of the 15-year-old: “He was not thinking it was going to be a stabbing.
“He was thinking it was going to be a fist-fight, the Murrays against the Himshies, something that was not unknown to any of them.”
The lawyer urged jurors to acquit his client if they believe Kayden’s murder could not have been anticipated by the 15-year-old, who was 14 at the time of the fatal incident.
Mr Duguid continued: “He’s 15, it’s important to him, his whole life is ahead of him.”
Prosecutors earlier withdrew all charges against Stewart and the 15-year-old apart from the murder charge, which they both deny.
They previously lodged special defences of incrimination.
The trial continues before Judge Lord Scott, who is expected to instruct the jury on Thursday.
