Teenager detained for murdering 17-year-old

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A teenager has been detained for life after being found guilty of murdering a 17-year-old boy in a confrontation that lasted just two minutes.

Harley Demmon, 16, killed Josh Hall after arranging to meet him to “sort out their difference”.

There had been some hostility between the two teenagers, and they agreed to meet up at a sports ground in Cam near Dursley Gloucestershire

The confrontation was related to insulting comments about a girl Demmon wrongly believed Josh had made.

Gloucester Crown Court heard the Demmon took a knife with him concealed in his waistband to the meeting on the afternoon of April 16 last year.

James Dawes QC, prosecuting, told the court: “He could not have known what was about to unfold because Harley Demmon had a knife concealed in his waistband.

“Those watching could not have known what he was going to do.

“He had worked himself up before he left home, and he had taken that knife with him.

“When the pushing and pulling started he took out the knife and stabbed Josh to death.”

Josh was stabbed six times during the confrontation which lasted just two minutes and took place in front of other teenagers.

He died the following day in a Bristol hospital.

Demmon, of Church Road, Cam, Dursley denied murder but was convicted by a jury last November.

The teenager, who was aged 15 at the time, told the court that he was trying to “warn” Josh away with the knife, and that he “didn’t mean to stab him”.

In a victim impact statement, Josh’s mother Kirsty Hall said she would never forgive Demmon for what he had done.

“It took under one minute for our whole life to be blown up into a million pieces,” Mrs Hall said.

“We were waiting in the hospital and telling him he couldn’t leave us and he must stay and fight and fight he did for 11 hours.

“My last words to Josh were, ‘You hurt so much and you are not coming back from this.

“‘Go and be with your sister, I promise it will be OK’.

“This moment will haunt me forever, seeing my small boy lying on a bed surrounded by tubes.”

She added: “I hope that you one day comprehend the actions you took that day.

“You decimated our family and changed the course of my family’s life forever.

“You apologised in court.

“But you misrepresented the facts to extricate yourself from the consequences of your actions

“I do not accept your apology, I will never find forgiveness in my heart for what you did.”

Edward Brown QC, defending, said Demmon had demonstrated remorse in the aftermath of the murder.

“It is very unusual to encounter a young person who has committed murder who uses a telephone to ring the police, state where he could be found and point the police in the direction to where the knife could be found,” he said.

“While in custody shown genuine remorse and distress to what had happened that day.”

Imposing a life sentence with a minimum term of 14 years, Mr Justice Chamberlain said: “For several months before April 2021 you had been carrying a knife when you went out.

“You said that this was because you were afraid of a local drug dealer and because other groups of boys had knives.

“This may have been part of the reason.

“Another was that carrying a knife made you feel like a big and powerful man.

“You talked to your peers using messaging apps including Snapchat.

“You were teenagers in Gloucestershire, but you spoke in the patois of urban gangsters.

“You intended to be fearless when in fact you were deeply insecure.

“You adopted the personas of hardened and fearless criminals.

“Perceived slights to honour or status were met by promises of violence.”

He added: “You inflicted all those wounds in less than a minute.

“You acted in anger using the knife you had brought to the scene.

“Josh was unarmed and you gave him no chance to defend himself.

“The pre-sentence report provides no evidence of any real remorse, though the letters I have from your family paint a different picture and suggest that your distress at what you have done is not focused solely on yourself.

“I hope that, once you have had the opportunity to reflect properly on what you did, and to process it, the qualities that others have seen in you will come to the fore.

“First you will have to develop a fuller understanding and acceptance that it is you who are responsible for your current predicament and, more importantly, for the catastrophe that has befallen Josh’s family and friends.”

Detective Superintendent John Turner, who led the investigation, said: “The death of a young person in these circumstances has had a huge impact but there has been a continued sense of willingness from the community of all ages to engage with the police, which enabled the investigation team to understand and present what had happened to the jury.

“This ultimately resulted in them reaching the guilty verdict and I hope that this will allow the Hall family to have some form of closure in knowing that their son’s killer is behind bars.”