Man admits fatal college stabbing

Odwayne Barnes was stabbed outside Matthew Boulton college

A teenager has admitted murdering a 16-year-old boy in Birmingham city centre.

Odwayne Barnes was stabbed outside Matthew Boulton College on 5 March because he was a member of a rival gang, Birmingham Crown Court heard.

Damien Belle, 18, of Heathway, Shard End, changed his plea to guilty on Wednesday morning.

Two others, Nathaniel Darby, 20, of Wyrley Way, Erdington, and a 17-year-old youth deny murder.

Robert Juckes QC, prosecuting, said on the afternoon of the attack, Odwayne and his friend Leon Black had encountered the defendants by chance in New Street, in the city centre, and fled in terror as soon as they recognised them.

Dragged and attacked

He said two witnesses had seen a young man matching Belle's description chasing another young black man through the precinct of St Philip's Cathedral while waving a knife.

Odwayne managed to reach a bus stop in Jennens Road, outside the college.

"By the time he reached the bus stop, he must have thought he had escaped from this confrontation," Mr Juckes said.

But soon afterwards the defendants pulled up at the bus stop in Mr Darby's Volkswagen Polo.

Mr Juckes said: "Nathaniel Darby ran and attacked Odwayne as he stood at the bus stop.

'Catastrophic' injuries

"Odwayne Barnes was dragged from where he stood into the busy main road.

"Then the three of them set about him and in the course of the assault he was stabbed twice."

He suffered "catastrophic" injuries to his heart but still managed to escape on foot before collapsing some distance away.

Mr Darby's brother, Lucien, 18, is also on trial, accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

He is alleged to have cleaned the Polo in an effort to destroy incriminating scientific evidence.