Teen stabbed 16-year-old over £20 cannabis debt with "no hesitation", court hears
A teenager fatally stabbed a 16-year-old boy without saying a word and with "no hesitation", a court has heard.
A 16-year-old boy is on trial at Hove Crown Court charged with the murder of Joshua Ingram, who was stabbed at Seaford railway station in East Sussex on September 10, 2025. The defendant has pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of manslaughter.
Joshua had been at the station with a friend at the time of the stabbing. Giving evidence on Wednesday, the friend told the court the defendant asked, "Is that Josh?" before he pulled a knife from his right hip, "went for it twice" and then ran away.
When the friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, saw the defendant reach for an "army knife" with a black handle, he screamed "Josh", the court heard.
In a recorded police interview played to jurors, the friend told officers: "Josh turned round, by the time he turned round he got stabbed."
Asked about the defendant’s actions, he said: "He had no hesitation, he had a very still facial expression. He wasn’t pulling a face, he didn’t look like he had anger in him. He looked very calm and just normal but then just did that."
Asked if Joshua had said anything, he added: "I don’t think Josh even knew what had happened."
After the stabbing, the friend said he used Siri to call 999, adding: "I was so in shock I didn’t know what to do."
The friend said that while he and Joshua were walking to the station, Joshua told him: "Is that [the defendant], I owe him £20."
But the friend said: "He didn’t say it in a worrying way. He said it in a normal tone, not thinking he was going to get stabbed, thinking [the defendant] was going to come up and say ’Where’s my money?’."
The 16-year-old defendant is also accused, along with two youths aged 17 and 15, of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent.
The 15-year-old is also on trial charged with assisting an offender, which the 17-year-old has pleaded guilty to.
The prosecution alleges the trio "plotted and planned" the stabbing attack over an unpaid £20 cannabis debt.
Snapchat messages sent in the months before the stabbing were read in court. In one message, the teenager accused of murder said: "Josh will perish if I don’t get my f****** money, that’s a fact and he knows this.
"I’m ready to sit in a prison cell for 30 years over a £20 sheet."
After the prosecution’s opening, Colin Aylott KC, the 16-year-old defendant’s lawyer, said the key issue between the prosecution and defence cases was intent.
The defendant has pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but the prosecution asserts he is guilty of murder, alleging he intended to cause "really serious harm".
The defence case is that the 16-year-old only intended to cause "some harm".
Mr Aylott said the defence will assert that the messages are a "mix of fantasy, hyped-up teen exaggeration or the straight-out lies of an immature young man trying to impress his friends".
The defence also disputes that all of the messages specifically relate to Joshua.
Politics Editor
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