A 16-year-old who was fatally stabbed earlier this year had arguments with his alleged attacker in the months leading up to the incident and told a girl to report him to the police, a court has heard.

Harley Barfield, from Haverhill, died two days after he was attacked in a car park next to Strasbourg Square in the town on January 9. 

Another 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is now on trial for his murder at Ipswich Crown Court. He denies murder but has but has admitted manslaughter and possessing the knife that was used to kill Harley.

East Anglian Daily Times: Harley BarfieldHarley Barfield (Image: Suffolk police)

Previously, the court was told the alleged attacker was obsessed with his former girlfriend, who was in a relationship with Harley, and Riel Karmy-Jones KC, prosecuting, described it as a “love triangle”.

Today, the jury was shown text messages between Harley and the defendant in which Harley confronted him for "harassing" the girl. 

While the actual messages, which were sent via Snapchat, were not found saved on the teenagers' phones, screenshots of these messages were found on Harley's device. 

One message read: "Don't touch her, you freak. She doesn't want anything to do with you."

This came after the girl alleged to Harley that the defendant had been harrassing her in school. 

As well as arguing with the boy, Harley told the girl to report his alleged behaviour to the police, teachers and her mum.

The jury was also told when the girl blocked the defendant on social media he tried to find other ways to contact her, including sending her small amounts of money via PayPal, which allows you to send messages alongside payments.

Ms Karmy-Jones previously told the court that witnesses allegedly saw the 16-year-old boy chase after Harley with a knife and heard Harley screaming “stop”.

They saw the 16-year-old make two stabbing motions towards Harley who fell to the ground and was then seen lying curled up in a ball.

The 16-year-old’s former girlfriend arrived on the scene and was screaming hysterically while one of her friends tried to stem the bleeding from Harley’s wounds.

A member of the public had performed CPR on Harley who appeared to have stopped breathing, said Miss Karmy-Jones.

After the incident, the 16-year-old had run from the scene and disposed of the knife.

He went to his grandparents and told them to call the police as he had stabbed someone.

Harley received cuts to his neck, head, cheek, and lip as well as three stab wounds to the left side of his chest, one of which penetrated his chest.

An air ambulance was called to the scene of the stabbing and Harley was airlifted to hospital where, despite the efforts of doctors, he died on January 11.

A post-mortem examination showed he had died from multi-organ shock caused by a lack of blood circulation.

The court heard that following his arrest the 16-year-old boy initially claimed that Harley had been armed with a knife which he had picked up when it fell out of Harley’s pocket.

He claimed Harley had previously threatened to kill him and he had stabbed him in self-defence, although he later accepted this wasn’t what happened.

Miss Karmy-Jones said that following the stabbing it was discovered that the 16-year-old had carried out Google searches on “how to stab someone without getting stabbed back” and “how long do you get for murder?”

The trial continues.