14 DAY TRIAL // 19-year-old Rikki Todd from Camperdown, Northumberland, in the UK, was attacked by a group of boys after he joked about one of them looking like Justin Bieber.
His Bieber remark got Todd punched and kicked, a beating that ended with the boys stamping on his head, outside the Halfway House pub. The brutal attack lead to boy's death, four days later. He had suffered head injuries and a broken collar bone.
Danny Scott and Jack Walton, two of the teenagers involved in the incident, have been charged with murder, and are being tried as adults, being over 18.
“CCTV footage shows Rikki repeatedly ruffling the hair of a youngster who was part of the defendants’ group. [...] Rikki thought he had a passing resemblance to the Canadian singer Justin Bieber and, while drunk, thought it would be amusing to say so,” prosecutor Graham Reeds explained.
“The evidence shows the defendants were part of a group of three or four on one, and Scott pushed past someone else and launched a surprise attack,” Reeds said.
Even though the boy that felt insulted was part of the attack, he is not facing charges, the Mirror reports.
Todd's attackers are pleading not guilty to the accusations of murder, but witnesses put them at the scene, delivering the “forceful and deliberate blows.”
“Witnesses remember Scott appeared to be particularly pleased with what he had just done. [...] A boy saw Jack Walton aim a kick which connected with the side of Rikki’s head and a witness says Scott stamped on the back of his head.
“He saw Rikki was now lying motionless on the floor and he shouted “I’ve knocked him out” or something similar and he lifted his hands in celebration of what he had done. [...] Almost immediately after the punch struck him, others in the group continued the attack,” the prosecution states.