A teenager has been found guilty of murdering a 14-year-old love rival in a “brutal and sustained” attack in a cemetery.
The victim, Jordan Watson, was found with serious injuries to his head and neck after being lured to the cemetery in Carlisle, Cumbria, in June last year.
George Thomson, 19, was convicted of murder on Friday after a jury at Carlisle crown court heard that he had developed an “obsessive desire” for Jordan’s girlfriend.
The jurors at were told that Thomson’s desire for the 14-year-old girl “festered and grew in intensity” before he decided he wanted Jordan “out of the picture”.
Thomson was said to have lured the schoolboy to the cemetery on the evening of 15 June with an “almost certainly fictional” arrangement to sell some weapons to another man.
When police later searched Thomson’s home they found under his bed a large Gurkha knife with blood on it. Officers also found an “unusually large” quantity of knives and weapons including a machete and a cleaver, the court heard.
Simon Medland QC, prosecuting, told jurors during the trial that Jordan’s girlfriend received an “abusive” Facebook message at 11.45pm, purporting to be from Jordan ending their relationship. However, it was Thomson who sent it; Jordan was already dead.
A postmortem examination of Jordan found at least nine deep wounds, at least one of which had gone through his neck tissues to his spine.
The jury reached a unanimous verdict on Thomson. They have not yet reached verdicts on Thomson’s co-defendants, Brahnn Finley, 19, and Daniel Johnston, 20, who it is alleged were present during the murder to “lend support” to Thomson.
Finley and Johnston, both of Carlisle, deny murder. The jury resumed its deliberations after the trial judge, Mr Justice Green, said he could now accept majority verdicts of at least 10-2.