Wellingborough teenager jailed for killing Dylan Holliday

A teenager found guilty of the manslaughter of 16-year-old Dylan Holliday has been handed a custodial sentence of 12 years with four years extended supervision.

The 17-year-old killer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been found guilty of manslaughter, inflicting grievous bodily harm (GBH) to Dylan’s friend and carrying a knife.

The killer’s co-defendant, also aged 17, and who also cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty under joint enterprise of inflicting GBH to Dylan’s friend and carrying a knife.

He was given a 12-month Youth Rehabilitation Order.

Sentencing the two boys, judge The Honorable Mr Justice Dove called the killer a ‘dangerous offender’ and that he had been out of control when he committed the offences.

After sentencing Dee Walsh, Dylan’s mum, said: “It’s never enough. It’s better than what I thought but I still feel quite numb.

“You can get married and have a child at 16 but in court it’s different. Things need to change for other families, we might campaign on behalf of other families in Dylan’s name.”

Dylan Holliday, 16, was stabbed 13 times as he ‘chilled and relaxed’ with his best friend in the A509 underpass near Shelley Road, on the Queensway estate, on August 5, 2021.

The killer, who admitting carrying a knife from the age of 13, claimed he had stabbed Dylan in self-defence – the jury of five men and five women at Coventry Crown Court found him guilty of manslaughter in August following a four-week trial.

Dylan and his friend were smoking cannabis, listening to music and ‘chilling and relaxing’ at about 6pm, on August 5, 2021, when his killer and his accomplice rode up on bikes they had borrowed from friends who had been smoking crack in bushes near Glamis Hall.

After making demands, Dylan and the boy squared-up to each other – his 16-year-old friend facing the other boy – and a fight began. Defenceless and with his dominant right arm in a plaster cast from a injury sustained in a bike crash, Dylan swung at his assailant.

The killer pulled out a blade concealed in the waistband of his jogging bottoms and after taking its protective sheath off, stabbed Dylan 13 times in what he said was self-defence. He then turned on Dylan’s 16-year-old companion and stabbed him in his side.

Later the boys rode off, splitting up to return to different addresses in the town before being picked up by the police.