Connor Brown murder trial: Accused tells jurors Sunderland teenager 'fell' on his knife

A man accused of murdering Connor Brown told jurors the Sunderland teenager ‘fell’ on his knife.
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Leighton Barrass, of Hartside Square, and Ally Gordon, of Polmiur Road, both 20, have denied murdering the 18-year-old in the early hours of Sunday, February 24.

Giving evidence to the court, Barrass told jurors he did not ‘deliberately stab’ Connor Brown and claims he had no intention of using the knife and said he just wanted to ‘scare him off’.

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Connor Brown was killed in Sunderland city centre in FebruaryConnor Brown was killed in Sunderland city centre in February
Connor Brown was killed in Sunderland city centre in February

Barrass also told the jury he can only remember a knife coming into contact with Connor once and claims he stayed near to the scene because he ‘didn’t think it was that bad’ before adding that he wanted to check if the teenager was alright.

When asked how many times his knife entered the Farringdon lad’s body, the 20-year-old defendant said: “I can only remember it coming into contact with Connor when he fell on it.”

He told jurors he didn’t know how Connor suffered the other four stab wounds and insisted ‘he can only remember it going into him once’.

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Describing the stab wound to Connor’s chest which damaged his seventh rib and entered his heart, Jamie Hill QC, prosecuting, asked Barrass if that was the injury caused when Connor ‘fell into the knife’.

Connor BrownConnor Brown
Connor Brown

Barrass said: “I honestly couldn’t tell you.”

Barrass told the court that Gordon had shown him a blue flick knife while they were travelling into Sunderland city centre in a minibus, but said he didn’t see Gordon stab anyone.

Barrass also confirmed to jurors that he was carrying a flick knife on the night Connor was killed.

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During today’s court hearing, Mr Whitfield QC said to Barrass: “You know from what you said that you bring a lot of responsibility for what happened that night, don’t you?” Barrass replied ‘yes’.

“That as a result of your actions Connor lost his life,” added Mr Whitfield QC. “What do you want to say about that?”

Barrass said: “I’m really sorry like. It was never supposed to happen.”

The 20-year-old told jurors he was carrying a knife because he was going fishing in South Shields with a friend - who was meant to be bringing all the fishing gear.

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When the friend cancelled Barrass went to the Grey Hen pub, in South Shields.

The court heard that Barrass flashed the knife, which he had bought earlier that day, to a number of friends in a number of pubs during the day.

When asked by Mr Hill, prosecuting, why he flicked the blade of the knife in Grindon Club, Barrass said: “I was a bit drunk, I was showing off to my friends. I was just joking.”