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15-year-old boy pleads guilty to random murder of 12-year-old Leo Ross Knife attack when he comes home from school.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was Birmingham Crown Court Thursday.
Leo was home from school birminghamOn January 21, 2025, Yardley Wood was stabbed to death on a riverside path in Shire Country Park.
Members of the public rushed to his aid but he later died in hospital.
Leo, a pupil at Anglican Christ Church Secondary School, is believed to be the youngest knife victim crime In the West Midlands.
His family described him in a statement as an “amazing, kind and loving” boy.
The teenager, who was 14 at the time of the incident and is now 15, also pleaded guilty on Thursday to two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, assault occasioning actual bodily harm in connection with a previous attack on a different victim, and one count of publishing an article with a blade on the day he killed Leo.
He denied causing actual bodily harm and assault to two other people and the charges were ordered filed.
Subsequent police investigations revealed that the knife that killed Leo had been thrown into a nearby river, and that the young man riding a bicycle had previously chased and attacked several women in a local park.
An investigation by West Midlands Police also found the killer chose to speak to police at the murder scene, falsely claiming he had stumbled upon Leo lying critically injured by the River Cole.
It was also revealed that Leo had no relationship with the attacker and senior officials believed that Leo was stabbed in a completely random and unprovoked manner.
The defendant’s guilty plea came after his trial was postponed for more than six months to allow psychiatric experts to evaluate the defendant, who cannot be identified due to his age.
Judge Paul Farrer KC said sentencing would take place on February 10 and was likely to last throughout the day.
He told the defendant: “For a number of reasons I cannot sentence you today. You will be sentenced on February 10 and you will be taken from where you are being held birminghamwhere you can talk to your attorney.
“In the meantime, you will be remanded to a youth detention facility.”