Fred Shand murder trial: Prosecutor accuses alleged killer, 15, of ‘telling lots of lies’ to jury

One of the teenagers standing trial for the murder of Fred Shand has been accused of “telling lots of lies” by a prosecutor in court.

For the last two weeks, a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old have been tried for the murder of 16-year-old Fred Shand, who was fatally stabbed in Harborough Road in Kingsthorpe on March 22. The last three days of the trial has seen the younger defendant give his evidence for the first time.

On Tuesday July 25, the 15-year-old was cross examined by the older defendant’s defence barrister and then prosecutor Miss Jane Bickerstaff KC.

“You’ve been telling lots of lies, haven’t you?” Miss Bickerstaff asked the defendant, who replied “No.”

“And they are all lies that you have had a few months to think about. You said nothing in the police station to the police in four interviews, did you? You didn’t give them one word of help or explanation for what you’ve just done, did you? Even though you know full well that you took a massive knife and stabbed a 16-year-old boy through the heart and killed him. Why did you tell the police it was an accident? ‘I was terrified, I didn’t mean to do it.’”

The court heard that the 15-year-old refused to provide the police with the pin number to his phone to verify his claims that threats had been made against him in group chats. The teen claims the police would not have been able to access the chats anyway because “they weren’t saved.”

The 15-year-old confirmed that neither himself or his co-defendant came away from the fight with any injuries inflicted by Fred or his friend.

Miss Bickerstaff questioned the younger defendant on why he thought Fred and his friend were armed when he went looking for them with his co-defendant at Kingsthorpe College, seeing as weapons are not permitted at school.

“I did have some thoughts about that,” the 15-year-old answered, “We did not really know what they were capable of.”

A message sent to a group chat by the 15-year-old back in November 2022 was read aloud to the court - it said: “[Name] be giving me too much talk, I may have to stab him” and he went on to say he would leave “bare holes in him.”

The court heard that this defendant then went on to assault the teen named in the message in Taco Bell on March 20, which ultimately set off the chain of events that led to Fred’s death - the fight in McDonald’s on March 21 and then the stabbing on March 22.

Despite the 15-year-old insisting that his threat to stab someone back in November was “all words,” he previously gave evidence saying that he acquired a knife that same month before bringing that knife to the Taco Bell assault four months later and then using it to stab Fred.

When asked how he obtained a knife at the age of 14, the defendant said he asked “strangers” in the street to go into a shop and buy one for him - it was the third person he asked that fulfilled his request. The 15-year-old said he asked for “anything with a blade,” handed over £35 and told the stranger to “keep the change.” He denied targeting people who looked like rough sleepers or drug users.

“Everyone has knives, everyone’s carrying knives a lot larger than that,” the defendant said, as the large knife was shown to the courtroom.

“Not Fred,” Miss Bickerstaff interjected.

A second knife was shown to the courtroom - a smaller Amazon hunting knife. The 15-year-old was asked why he felt the need to import a second knife.

“Because the other one was too large. It was too big and not comfortable. I can't walk properly with it and can't run or do anything with it,” the younger defendant replied.

“So you were thinking of yourself,” Miss Bickerstaff said, dumbfounded.

The court heard that neither defendant had seen Fred in person until the day he was killed. The older defendant had sent a group picture to the younger defendant that day asking, “This Fred, yeah?” to which the younger defendant responded, “I don’t know bro.”

On the morning of the stabbing, the two defendants met up in the town centre before riding to the Racecourse on an e-scooter, where the younger teen gave one of his two knives to his co-defendant.

The 15-year-old previously told the court that the initial plan was to drop the blades off at the older defendant’s house before searching for Fred and his friend for a “fist fight” but he claimed this did not happen because they were running late and did not have time to leave the knives there.

Miss Bickerstaff disputed this, however, because evidence showed that the defendants had time to stop for around nine minutes on the way to Kingsthorpe College and their route took them just a few metres away from the older defendant’s house, meaning they had time to leave the knives there.

“At no point ever I thought that anyone would end up getting stabbed,” the 15-year-old told the court.

Miss Bickerstaff said: “You were 14 and had been carrying knives for only three to four months before you actually killed someone so there's no validity saying you have never stabbed anyone.”

The court was then played CCTV footage from Harborough Road of the fatal stabbing on March 22 - the confrontation took all of seven seconds to unfold.

The video showed the 15-year-old defendant hopping off the back of the e-scooter, which was being driven by the older defendant. This happened as Fred and his friend were walking in their direction on the green area. The older defendant then runs at Fred, who takes off his belt and the older defendant momentarily ends up on the floor.

Fred then moves backwards and this is when the 15-year-old is seen running towards him with his blade drawn. Fred, with the belt still in his hand, turns to run in the direction of the tree when the younger defendant stabs his backpack. Fred then turns around and that’s when the 15-year-old delivers the fatal blow to the victim’s chest.

Miss Bickerstaff suggested that Fred removed his belt when he saw the defendants approaching because the younger defendant was “brandishing a large bladed weapon” and wanted to use it to keep them back.

The defendant argued that he had not taken out the blade at that point and only did it because he claimed Fred “swung” his belt at the older defendant and knocked him to the ground before stepping back and “swinging” the belt at him “like a cowboy.”

Miss Bickerstaff argued that the older defendant was only down “for a second” and was capable of looking after himself. She also referred to several witnesses stating they could see the large blade in the 15-year-old’s hand as soon as he got off the scooter.

“Some [witnesses] are saying that people were being hit in the head with sticks. Some of them said it lasted five minutes. Some of them got it wrong,” the 15-year-old told the barrister.

Miss Bickerstaff also points out that Fred moves backwards so was nowhere near close enough to the 15-year-old to hit him with his belt.

“Only one person closed that gap. You,” the prosecutor told the teen.

The trial continues.

What else has happened in the trial so far?

The two teenage boys from Northampton, who were aged 14 and 16 at the time but are now 15 and 17, pleaded not guilty to their murder charge before Northampton Crown Court on April 24. They cannot be named for legal reasons.

Miss Jane Bickerstaff KC, the prosecuting barrister, kickstarted the trial on Wednesday (July 12) with the prosecution opening after the jury was sworn in on Monday (July 10).

The court heard the younger defendant, aged 15, faces an additional charge of carrying an article with a blade or a sharp point in a public place – which he has already pleaded guilty to.

The court heard 16-year-old Rohan Shand, known as Fred, died after being stabbed near the Cock Hotel in Harborough Road at about 3.35pm on March 22 while on his way home from Kingsthorpe College.

Miss Bickerstaff KC, of the prosecution, told the court it was the 15-year-old male defendant that carried out the stabbing and he was accompanied by the 17-year-old in the planned “joint enterprise attack” – shown by CCTV footage in court.

The stabbing followed an altercation outside McDonalds in the Drapery, which the court heard took place the day before (March 21).

A male had his “face sliced with a belt buckle” during that “dispute” and the two defendants were a friend of his. The co-defendants believed Fred Shand was at the forefront of the group responsible.

The court heard that after the co-defendants arrived at Kingsthorpe College later than planned on March 22, they rode on scooter towards the town centre via Harborough Road.

The entire incident was over in seven seconds after Fred, his teen friend and the two co-defendants came together for the first time at 3.34pm on March 22 on the green in Harborough Road, the court heard.

The co-defendants fled the scene on foot to the home of the 17-year-old, where they were detained by police shortly after – along with what is believed to be the murder weapon, a second knife and clothing worn during the incident.

During the second day of the trial (Thursday, July 13) – the first in which witnesses were called on to give evidence by the prosecution – the court saw 360 degree imagery to give them an understanding of the area, as well as video footage that has been recovered from March 22.

On the morning of the third day of the trial (Friday, July 14), the pathologist that conducted Fred’s post-mortem examination gave her expert evidence on the cause of death.

This was followed by evidence given by the teen friend who was with Fred on the day of the fatal stabbing.

Kickstarting the second week (Tuesday, July 18), the two eyewitnesses who followed the co-defendants home after the incident were called to give evidence.

The final live witness took to the stand to conclude the morning sitting, when the court heard he saw the blade pulled from the younger defendant’s trousers.

Five written witness statements were read aloud to conclude Tuesday’s sitting (July 18) – one of which detailed a nine second phone call the 15-year-old defendant had with a friend ahead of the incident.

The final eight written statements were heard the following day (Wednesday, July 19), including five from members of the police force.

Ahead of the prosecution closing its case, the jury were taken step-by-step through key moments which led to the Kingsthorpe College pupil’s death.

Having been told the agreed facts of the case, the jury heard the 17-year-old defendant has pleaded guilty to being in possession of a bladed article in Harborough Road on the day of the fatal stabbing.

The 15-year-old defendant stood to give evidence in court for the first time on Friday afternoon (July 21), when the court heard him say young people buy knives “for show” and to “look cool”.The younger defendant charged with murder said he felt ‘upset’ seeing a picture of the 16-year-old Fred Shand for the first time because of “how it happened and how it went down”.

The 15-year-old defendant, continuing his evidence on July 24, said he wore a balaclava and carried a knife on the day of the fatal stabbing to “look as scary as possible” but claimed he had no intention of using the knife as a weapon.

Continuing his evidence that same afternoon, the 15-year-old defendant describes the moments leading up to the fatal stabbing. The younger defendant said he “did not realise” he stabbed Fred until the 16-year-old collapsed and he saw the blood on his knife.

The younger defendant admitted going against an “agreement” with his older co-defendant not to use a knife in the confrontation with Fred and his friend when he was cross-examined in court on July 25.

The trial continues.