Gordon Gault killing: Boy, 16, thought he was just joining shouting match

A teenager accused of murdering a 14-year-old boy in a group attack thought he was just joining a "shouting match", a court has heard.

Gordon Gault died in hospital six days after being fatally wounded with a machete in Newcastle in November 2022.

Six youths, aged 16 to 18, deny murder and wounding a 17-year-old boy.

The youngest boy, 15 at the time, told Newcastle Crown Court he was "stupid" to take a weapon handed to him but he didn't think there would be violence.

Jurors have heard that the attacks on 9 November were part of a feud between rival groups of youths in "tit-for-tat violence", with Gordon fatally injured by Carlos Neto, 18.

Prosecutors have said the defendants, who were associated with the Benwell area, went to Elswick to carry out a revenge attack on their rivals after one of them, Benedict Mbala, had been beaten up earlier in the day.

Two of the defendants, aged 16 and 17, are unable to be identified, but the others who are all 18 are:

The 16-year-old, who is the second defendant to give evidence, said he knew Mr Neto and Mr Mbala as they used to "hang around" on his street and he would play football with them.

But he lost contact with Mr Neto and had not spoken to him for about two years before 9 November, while he and Mr Mbala had also stopped "knocking around" with each other.

He did not know anything about his other three co-accused until he first met them that night, the court heard.

The boy said he knew Gordon from seeing him and his friends in the Elswick area and from school.

Under questioning by his barrister Peter Makepeace KC, the boy said he initially got on well with Gordon and would play with the younger youth's dogs.

But the pair had a falling out after the boy had an argument with one of Gordon's friends.

The court has heard Gordon and his friends exchanged messages talking about stabbing the boy, but the youth told jurors he never knew about those discussions.

He said a teacher heard gossip about the two possibly fighting and got the boys together to resolve their issues.

The boy said he and Gordon had a meeting on 8 November, the day before the fatal stabbing, where they "solved" things and shook hands.

On 9 November, one of Gordon's friends showed the boy a video showing Mr Mbala being beaten up.

The boy said the video was a "bit shocking" but just "ignored it".

Later that afternoon, the boy came across Mr Mbala and six or so others in Newcastle and "asked him if he was OK because [the boy] knew he had been jumped".

The boy said one of the group asked him if we would "go with them" to "meet up with others" and he agreed, with other youths including Mr Natty and Mr Neto arriving a short while later.

People in the larger group were saying they "should go to the Elswick area and show them we are not scared of them," the youth told jurors.

He went with the others to a wood to smoke cannabis, the court heard, before they moved to Elswick Park.

The boy said he did not have a weapon until another youth, who is not one of the defendants, arrived and pulled out a machete and told him to "take this just in case they get jumped".

The youth said he "didn't really want" the weapon but "just felt peer-pressured to take it", adding he did not think he would need to use it.

"I just thought we were going there to big ourselves up, I didn't think any violence would happen," the boy said, adding he thought there would just be a "shouting match".

The boy said he was "stupid" and took the machete as he "just wanted to look harder than I was".

He said Mr Natty and Mr Neto told him they had machetes and he later found out another youth had a hammer, although that was only "at the end when all the weapons got chucked away".

He said as their rivals started to arrive, his group started running away.

"I was scared," the boy said, adding: "I wanted to get away from the situation.

"I don't know why I went in the first place, I was just being a sheep."

The boy said he did not see either Gordon or the injured 17-year-old get stabbed, and he did not want anybody to get hurt.

His group congregated back in the woods with several throwing away their jackets as well as the weapons, the court heard.

The boy said he then cycled to his grandmother's home using a bike he had grabbed from the scene of the brawl.

He said on the way a man with his face covered punched him, knocking him out and leaving him with a black eye.

The boy said the man, who he believed was in his 20s, told him: "If you were a bit older you'd have got it worse."

The boy said he called his father from his grandmother's house who informed police, with the boy arrested a short while later.

The youth refused to answer police questions and told jurors he was following the advice of his solicitor.

The trial continues.

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