Ten teenagers who murdered 18-year-old lose conviction appeal bids

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Ten teenagers who murdered an 18-year-old as he walked home from a funfair have lost Court of Appeal bids to overturn their convictions.

Jack Woodley was fatally stabbed after being “surrounded and isolated” by a gang of youths who chased him down an alleyway in Houghton le Spring, Sunderland.

He was punched, kicked, stamped on, and stabbed with a 25cm “Rambo-style” knife during the attack in October 2021.

At Newcastle Crown Court last year, the then-unnamed teenagers were handed minimum terms of between eight and 17 years’ detention after being convicted.

They each brought challenges against their convictions to the Court of Appeal in London in July, but each of their bids were dismissed on Friday.

Appeal judges also ruled that most of the teenagers should be identified, naming them as Clayton Owen, Sonny Smith, Joe Lathan, Leighton Mayo, Blaine Sewell, Grant Wheatley and Calum Maddison.

The three youngest of the group, who are all 16, will remain anonymous.

In his judgment, Lord Justice Holroyde said most of the teenagers challenged their convictions by claiming the trial judge had failed to give a balanced and impartial summary to jurors before they began deliberating.

Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Foxton and Sir Nigel Davis, dismissed these arguments.

He said: “We are unable to accept that it was flawed in the ways which the appellants suggest.

“On the contrary, it was in our view a thorough and fair rehearsal of the evidence and issues and was sufficient to overcome any difficulties which may have been caused by the two-week interruption of proceedings.”

Mayo also challenged his sentence, with his lawyers arguing that the minimum term of 11 years was “manifestly excessive”.

But this appeal was also dismissed.

Lord Justice Holroyde said: “It was a stiff sentence for a young appellant who had become involved in the violence later than others; but the judge had heard all the evidence and was in the best position to assess culpability, and we cannot say that the sentence was manifestly excessive.”

During the sentencing hearings in August 2022, Judge Rodney Jameson KC said the group had attacked Mr Woodley “solely for the excitement and pleasure of inflicting serious injury on an entirely innocent and randomly selected stranger”.

The judge told the defendants the violence inflicted on Mr Woodley “though short-lived, was appalling” and all of them “played a part in causing Jack’s death”.

Jurors heard that Mr Woodley was leaving the Houghton Feast funfair when the youths, who he did not know, “surrounded and isolated” him.

One of the teenagers first put Mr Woodley in a headlock and punched him, before the others “joined in”, the court heard. One of them was heard shouting “get the chopper” – referring to the knife – in mobile-phone footage of the incident.