Rohan Shand: Boy, 15, found guilty of murdering teenager

A 15-year-old boy has been found guilty of murdering another teenager in a revenge attack.

Rohan Shand, who was aged 16 and known as Fred, died after being stabbed on Harborough Road in Northampton on 22 March.

The boy was found guilty following a three-week trial at Northampton Crown Court.

The jury acquitted a second defendant, a boy aged 17, of murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.

Both defendants previously admitted possession of a blade and will be sentenced at the same court on a date yet to be fixed.

The younger defendant, who was 14 at the time, previously told the jury he only had a knife with him to "scare" Mr Shand.

Jurors had heard Mr Shand was blamed by the defendants after one of their friends was injured in a dispute outside a McDonald's a day earlier.

The younger defendant said he and two others planned a "revenge" attack on Mr Shand and others.

Details of the attack were discussed on Snapchat and on the day his killer scouted the area near his school on an e-scooter trying to find him.

The defendants went looking for Mr Shand and another boy "to fight", but the younger one insisted "at no point" did he think anyone would be killed, despite him taking two knives, the court heard.

The jury was told the entire attack lasted just seven seconds.

Members of the public who witnessed it followed the younger teenager to a nearby house and alerted police.

Armed officers found him hiding in an attic room.

Reacting to the verdicts, Mr Shand's father, Rohan Shand Snr, said: "I feel at ease to know justice has taken place for my son. It's not going to bring back my son.

"Hopefully these youths see what is going on and start to take heed from this. You're not going to kill someone with a knife and walk free.

"It can't continue like this - killing each other for nothing at all. My son is dead for nothing, coming [home] from school, and at least I feel good in myself that I got some justice from the justice system."

Det Insp Simon Barnes, from Northamptonshire Police, said: "The level of violence used to resolve a petty dispute between teenagers is horrifying."

He said the "brutal and public" nature of his death caused "shockwaves in the local community".

"Fred had a family expecting him to arrive home from school, but that wasn't to be," he said.

"Since when has it been that a child cannot walk home from school without fear of being stabbed? How did we, as a society, get here?

"Boys and young men need to realise that when you take a knife to a fight, this is the consequence. The teenager responsible will now carry this guilt and the stigma attached for the rest of his life."

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