Jury shown CCTV of moments leading up to fatal stabbings

A jury has been shown CCTV footage of the moments leading up to a 33-second fatal attack on two teenage boys.

Mason Rist, 15, and Max Dixon, 16, can be seen in the images leaving Mason’s home on Ilminster Avenue in Knowle West, Bristol, shortly after 23:00 GMT on 27 January.

Bristol Crown Court heard how the close friends were then set upon by four teenage boys, armed with “fearsome weapons”.

Antony Snook, 45, Riley Tolliver, 18, and three boys aged 17, 16 and 15 – who cannot be named due to their age – are on trial, each charged with two counts of murder.

Prosecutor Ray Tully QC told the jury of nine men and three women how the pair had been wrongly identified as being responsible for a separate attack on a home in Hartcliffe earlier that evening.

At about 22:00 GMT, three masked individuals were caught on CCTV outside the property, wielding machetes and throwing bricks through the windows, injuring a woman inside.

Mr Tully said an hour later, Snook, Tolliver and the three teenage boys left the Hartcliffe area in Snook’s Audi Q2, “hell-bent on revenge”.

He added that there had been a “postcode rivalry” between Hartcliffe and Knowle West for some time.

CCTV images captured from Mason’s home on Ilminster Avenue showed the Audi, driven by Mr Snook, slow down as it passed Max arriving at his friend’s home.

The car then drives out of frame, and Max and Mason leave the address together shortly thereafter.

Moments later, the same camera captures the Audi reappearing. Four people jump out and chase the boys down the road, before inflicting the fatal injuries, the court was told.

The suspects then piled back into the car, which performs a U-turn in the street and sped away, leaving Mason collapsed in the road just feet away from his family home.

Mason was later pronounced dead at Bristol Children’s Hospital at 00:49 GMT, while Max was pronounced dead at Southmead Hospital at 01:02 GMT.

The 15-year-old defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has admitted murdering Mason Rist, 15, who died after being stabbed twice.

Another boy, 17, has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Max Dixon, 16, who died after being stabbed once.

The trial continues.