A teenager stabbed a student to death with a flick-knife after the victim’s friend made a ‘silly and light-hearted’ comment about his skateboarding skills, a murder trial has heard.
Shiloh George Pottinger is accused of murdering Luke O’Connor in Fallowfield, Manchester on October 26 last year.
According to DailyMail, a jury at Manchester Crown Court heard how Pottinger, 19, used a flick-knife known as a ‘Mafia stiletto’ in the horrific late-night attack after reacting in a ‘violent and unpredictable’ way to the comment.
Following his death, the second-year business management undergraduate’s family paid tribute to the ‘gentle giant’, saying his loss had left a ‘hole in our hearts that will never be filled’.
Mark Ford KC, prosecuting, said Mr O’Connor, a 19-year-old student at Manchester Metropolitan University, was walking home with two friends along Wilmslow Road – in the heart of the city’s student area – just before 2am when they encountered Pottinger.
Pottinger, who was holding a skateboard, was leaning against a shutter near a row of shops and takeaways.
Mr Ford said: ‘As they passed the defendant Charlie Robertson [Mr O’Connor’s friend] asked him if he could do a ‘kick-flick’.
It was obviously a reference to the fact the defendant had a skateboard and was intended as a silly or light-hearted comment.
‘But the defendant did not take it well. In fact, he reacted in a violent and unpredictable manner.’
Pottinger made a comment back and started walking towards Mr O’Connor, Mr Ford said. He then took out a flick-knife from his pocket and held it in front of Mr O’Connor’s face, ‘smiling as he did so’.
Mr Ford said Mr O’Connor tried several times to push Pottinger away and ‘step-back’.
But the jury heard the defendant’s response was to hit Mr O’Connor with his skateboard before it flew out of his hand.
Mr Ford told the jury that Mr O’Connor tried to ‘put some distance’ between him and Pottinger. But it didn’t work, and Pottinger ‘thrust the knife towards Mr O’Connor’s armpit area’, stabbing him through the jacket of his suit.
CCTV footage played to the jury showed how the pair grappled and fell to the ground, with the scuffle continuing in the road.
‘Mr O’Connor punched the defendant and held on to him, but as he did so Pottinger repeatedly stabbed him to the body,’ Mr Ford said.
The footage showed Mr Robertson coming to help his friend and briefly becoming ‘entangled’ in the scuffle.
