A YOUNG father may have been stabbed to death outside a city centre bar because of a dispute over a silver chain, a jury was told yesterday.

Blayne Ridgway collapsed outside Que Pasa in Queen Street, Oxford, in the early hours of Saturday, May 8, after he was fatally stabbed in the heart and liver.

A 16-year-old boy from East Oxford, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested and charged with murder, but denies killing the 22-year-old former Peers School pupil.

Sitting motionless in the dock, wearing a pink and blue striped tie with a navy jacket, the now 17-year-old watched as the prosecution opened the case for a two-week trial at Oxford Crown Court yesterday.

Ben Gumpert, prosecuting, said: “The defendant and Blayne Ridgway knew each other. As far as the police investigation went there was no long-running history of bad feeling between the two of them.

“They have some witnesses suggesting there may have been a disagreement between the two of them over a silver chain.”

He added: “Something must have occurred in the days leading up to the killing, or on the day it occurred for the defendant to have a grudge against Mr Ridgway.

“But it may be that the true motive of what he did never emerges.”

The court heard the teenager was arrested after he walked into St Aldate’s police station hours after Mr Ridgway’s death, telling police staff he had come to “hand himself in” as he had been in a fight.

Mr Gumpert said it was not until July 29 that the defendant told officers he had punched Mr Ridgway and that someone else must be responsible for the knife attack.

Mr Gumpert said the defendant was seen on CCTV footage hanging around the entrance to Que Pasa with his friends for a number of hours on the night of the incident.

He said: “One reason could be that he was waiting for his chance to attack Blayne Ridgway, which is what in the end he did.”

Jurors were shown CCTV images of the defendant running away from the scene, along Castle Street and Paradise Street.

Mr Gumpert said: “There seems to have been an initial confrontation in the smoking area. Following that, witnesses saw the defendant strike out at Blayne Ridgway.

“It’s a motion some describe as being like a punch. Others used the word ‘push’.

“None of the witnesses saw a knife, but a knife there was, as Blayne Ridgway sustained two stab wounds.”

Among other evidence which the prosecution plans to bring before the jury is the transcript of telephone conversations the defendant made from a young offenders’ institute to a friend on two occasions.

Mr Gumpert added: “What he did say when he was talking about the case was that he was going to get it dropped to manslaughter.”

Mr Ridgway grew up in the Donnington Bridge area and had just moved to East Oxford before his death.

The case continues.