There was ‘nothing adult or sophisticated’ behind a fight that left one man with half a dozen stab wounds, jurors were told.

John Ryder KC, representing one of three boys accused of the attempted murder of Danils Bogdancevs in a Banbury park last June, told jurors at Oxford Crown Court that the ‘reality’ was that the incident began when the alleged victim ‘poked’ his client.

“That’s what started this off. It wasn’t anything to do with him [being] a snitch. There was nothing adult about it. Nothing sophisticated,” the barrister told the jury in his closing speech on Tuesday (April 4).

“This was the reaction of a [teenage] youth.

“I’m not making excuses for him. He hasn’t made excuses for himself, to be fair.

"He has said right from the start in that prepared statement [to the police] ‘I was there in a fight with Danils Bogdancevs’. So, he put himself there. ‘Yes, I’m in the park, yes, I’m with him.’

“All he said then and all he says now is ‘no, I did not stab him’, or, by extension, want him stabbed or support the individual who did it.”

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Prosecutors say Mr Ryder’s client ‘Boy X’ was the ‘ringleader’ in the violence on June 11 last year, calling co-defendant ‘Z’ to the park as back-up.

‘X’ is alleged to have orchestrated the violence, punching and finally stamping on Mr Bogdancevs, while Z is accused of stabbing the man. A third defendant Y is said to have participated in the joint assault.

All deny attempted murder and wounding with intent.

On Tuesday, Mr Ryder urged the jury to carefully consider the Crown’s allegations in light of the ‘facts’ that they had heard.

He took issue with a comment by prosecutor Mark Trafford KC, made in his closing speech, that Mr Bogdancevs was a ‘snitch’ and that ‘snitches are an important thing in the life of X’.

The ‘snitch’ comment had arisen when X was questioned in the witness box, Mr Ryder reminded the jury.

“He said [Mr Bogdancevs] had an altercation with a homeless man and he – Danils – called the police. [X] saw him later and called him a snitch. [X] was laughing at him. He didn’t take it well, he shouted at [X] and [X] shouted at him.

“So, basically, a [teenaged] boy called a man a snitch. It was a sneer, an insult, a joke. Call it what you like. Danils Bogdancevs didn’t like being called a snitch and they shouted at each other and that was it.”

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Mr Ryder asked rhetorically whether that got the jury ‘anywhere near’ the implication in Mr Trafford’s words that ‘snitches’ were so important in X’s life that he ‘would be capable of terrible violence’ towards Mr Bogdancevs.

“[X] is not a criminal. He emphatically, demonstrably is not a criminal,” the defendant’s barrister said.

“He has absolutely no criminal convictions. He has never so much as been warned by the police about his conduct.

“Nothing – nothing at all - has been placed before you to demonstrate that although not convicted he has behaved in some reprehensible manner. Absolutely nothing.

“And it’s not as though such material, if it existed, could not have been presented.

“He does not use drugs. He is not a part of the group who smoke or exchange or trade drugs in that park. He has never carried or used a knife.”

The trial continues.