The girlfriend of a 16-year-old Suffolk schoolboy who was fatally stabbed by her former boyfriend has described arriving at the scene of the attack to find him lying critically injured on the ground.
Following the stabbing, which happened near a car park in Haverhill in January, the 15-year-old girl told police she had held Harley Barfield while one of her friends used her coat to try and stem the heavy bleeding.
She said Harley had been gasping for breath and had turned blue and she didn't know what to do.
She called her mother and after the police and ambulance arrived, she and her mother had gone to get Harley’s mother who was at work.
She said she had run to Strasbourg Square in Haverhill after being told by a friend that Harley was being chased by her former boyfriend.
She said she had started going out with Harley, who she described as being “kind and someone who wouldn’t hurt anybody”, two or three months before the stabbing.
The girl’s mother told police that when she arrived at the scene of the stabbing her daughter was screaming and had blood on her hands.
Before the court is a 16-year-old boy, who can’t be named because of his age, who has denied murdering Harley in January this year.
The court has heard that he has admitted manslaughter and possessing the knife used to kill Harley.
It has been alleged that the defendant armed himself with a kitchen knife and lay in wait for Harley before confronting him in a “jealous rage” and trying to goad him into a fight.
Riel Karmy-Jones KC, prosecuting, said the defendant and Harley, who she described as being in a “love triangle”, had thrown punches at each other before the 16-year-old took a knife out of his pocket and stabbed Harley several times.
She described the attack as “frenzied” and said that 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 heart.
She said that witnesses allegedly saw the defendant chase after Harley with a knife and heard Harley screaming “stop”.
They then allegedly saw him make two stabbing motions towards Harley who fell to the ground and then saw him stab Harley while he was lying curled up in a ball on the ground.
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 had disposed of the knife.
He went to his grandparents and allegedly told them to call the police as he had stabbed someone.
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 two days after the stabbing.
A post-mortem examination showed he had died from multi-organ shock caused by a lack of blood circulation.
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?”
“His phone shows he’d been thinking about murder for some time,” said Miss Karmy-Jones.
“The prosecution case is that he was so obsessed with his ex-girlfriend and jealous of her relationship with Harley that he murdered for her.”
Miss Karmy-Jones said the defendant had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and his defence was that his ASD diminished his responsibility for killing Harley.
The trial continues.
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