Two teenage boys were stabbed to death in a case of mistaken identity by a pack of “tooled up” youths who were on a mission for “revenge”, a court heard.
Jurors at Bristol Crown Court were shown CCTV footage of the moment Mason Rist, 15, and Max Dixon, 16, were allegedly attacked by four teenage boys who jumped out of an Audi Q2 being driven by Antony Snook, 45.
Mason was seen clutching his side and “prone on the floor” on the road outside his family home in the Knowle West area of Bristol, before collapsing the in the street. Max and Mason both sustained stab wounds and died from their injuries.
Snook, Riley Tolliver, 18, and three teenage boys aged 15, 16, 17 are accused of murdering the two schoolboys in the fatal stabbing on 27 January.
Opening the prosecution’s case, Ray Tully KC claimed Snook and the teens had targeted the two friends in a case of mistaken identity after they wrongly blamed them for an earlier attack which saw bricks thrown at a property in the Hartcliffe area of Bristol.
Mr Tully said the group set off in the car armed with weapons after the vandalism incident, in which a woman was injured.
“They were tooled up,” Mr Tully told the court. “They had some pretty fearsome weapons with them.
“The five occupants of the car drove from Hartcliffe to Knowle West. As they set off, we say, they were on the hunt for the people they thought were responsible for the attack on the house.
“They set off together, they were on a joint mission, and we say that was for revenge.”
He alleged all five, including Snook – who he described as the “getaway driver” – were jointly responsible for the fatal stabbing shortly after 11pm.
“As they drove past Max and Mason walking down the street, they thought they had spotted the people responsible for the earlier attack – or at the very least, people connected to it,” he added.
“They were entirely wrong about that. Max and Mason had absolutely nothing to do with any earlier incident and no connection whatsoever with those events.”
The jury were shown two machetes which Mr Tully said had been recovered following the fatal attacks.
Mr Tully said the prosecution’s case is that the five defendants “acted jointly and are all jointly responsible for what happened”.
“In short, we say they were in it together,” he added.
Nine men and three women have been sworn as jurors in the case, which is due to last until the end of November.
Mrs Justice May, the trial judge, told the panel that the teenage defendants have special educational needs.
They will be assisted by intermediaries – professionals who will sit with the defendants to help explain proceedings – during the trial, she said.
The trial continues.
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