18-year-old stabbed to death with large knife - murder trial told

Eddie O’Rourke was stabbed just minutes after arriving at a young woman’s 18th birthday party at the Royal British Legion in Runcorn on September 7.

A jury heard today, Wednesday, that Eddie and the accused 17-year-old had previously clashed over a girl.

Nigel Power, prosecuting in Liverpool Crown Court, claimed that at the party Eddie gestured to the 17-year-old as if to say ‘see me outside’ but the youth disappeared and returned with a 15-year-old boy who passed him a knife with a 12-inch long blade.

Eddie O’Rourke was stabbed once in the abdomen which cut through a main artery and caused severe and fatal internal bleeding.

Mr Power, who showed jurors the weapon, told them at the start of the trial that they would have to decide if the defendants, who cannot be identified because of their age, were acting in self-defence and whether they intended to cause Eddie serious bodily harm.

The two defendants have both pleaded not guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to murder.

The 15-year-old has pleaded guilty to having an offensive weapon.

Mr Power said that there had been bad feeling between Eddie and the 17-year-old who allegedly cut Eddie on the arm in 2017 and had made threats about Eddie in the months before his death.

The 15-year-old also made a threat to a girl he though Eddie was dating and showed an interest in knives.

Mr Power said that on the night of Eddie’s death, the 15-year-old had removed the knife from his trousers and passed it to the other defendant, who had allegedly been heard to say: “pass the knife.”

A young woman described the knife as “being like something you would see in Pirates of the Caribbean”.

Other witnesses saw teenagers fighting.

Eddie was heard shouting: “He’s f***in stabbed me” and the defendants ran off and got a taxi. Paramedics arrived and found Eddie unconscious and unresponsive and attempts to resuscitate him failed.

The knife, which a friend of Eddie’s had thrown into a nearby bush, was later recovered in the Legion’s bowling green by family and friends of the victim.

After his arrest the 17-year-old’s solicitor read a statement on his behalf in which he said: “Last night I only acted in reasonable self-defence.

“I do not wish to answer any further questions at this time.”

The next day he made another statement claiming that Eddie had previously assaulted him and had threatened him the previous week.

He claimed that outside the Legion premises he saw Eddie had a gang waiting for him with weapons.

He said: “As I got to the door, I was handed a knife, I hoped I could use it to frighten Eddie and his gang and run away.

“When I got outside, I held out the knife and said, ‘f*** off, we don’t want any trouble’.

“They all ran at me, Eddie and me wrestled with the knife.

“He took the knife off me, the cuts to my left arm were caused by Eddie with the knife.

“I wrestled at Eddie to the floor, he dropped the knife, I picked it up and they ran at me again.

“I jabbed out with the knife to defend myself and it hit Eddie.

“I was petrified throughout, I dropped the knife and ran off.

“I am really sorry that he was stabbed, I didn’t intend to hurt anybody, I was just trying to defend myself and get away.”

When interviewed the 15-year-old said he did not know how the knife got to the scene and denied passing it to his co-accused.

He said the knife was probably his but had not seen it for two weeks.

The trial, expected to last four weeks, continues.