The defence lawyer for one of two teenagers accused of murdering 15-year-old Amen Teklay in Glasgow has told the High Court that his client “did not lay a finger” on the victim, urging jurors to acquit the 17-year-old.
Closing Speech Highlights Lack of Evidence
Iain McSporran KC addressed jurors for about an hour on Friday on behalf of the second accused, who is 17. He said his client had assisted police with their investigation and spoke at length to detectives in the days after Amen’s death. “As far as he was concerned, he had done nothing wrong,” Mr McSporran told the court.
The lawyer argued that prosecutors had overreached by charging his client, and that the 17-year-old “was not involved in any feud or drug dealing or gang”. He said his client had enough knowledge to be “wary” of Amen but wished him no harm. “He did not lay a finger on Amen Teklay and the prosecution do not say otherwise,” Mr McSporran said.
Details of the Incident
Amen Teklay was found seriously injured on Clarendon Street, Maryhill, on the evening of March 5 last year and died at the scene. The murder charge alleges that the two teenage boys, with their faces masked, assaulted Amen and brandished a frying pan and a sword or similar instrument at him at Glenfarg Street and Clarendon Street. It is alleged that the pair chased Amen and struck him on the body with the sword, leaving him so severely injured that he died.
The two boys, who cannot be named due to their age, deny the charge. The 16-year-old has lodged a special defence of self-defence.
Defence Argues No Common Criminal Enterprise
Mr McSporran said there was a lack of evidence on which to convict his client on the basis of a common criminal enterprise with the first accused. He stated that on the day of the incident, Amen Teklay had “gone out of his way” to find the first accused, and that Amen had been armed with a weapon described as a “cutlass” or a “pirate sword”. The 17-year-old had not participated in the violence that followed, Mr McSporran said.
He told jurors: “I have no doubt that (Amen’s) family loves him and misses him.” He added: “By your verdict you cannot restore Amen Teklay to his family… Sympathy plays no part in the verdict process.”
The trial has been taking place before Lord Colbeck at the High Court in Glasgow.
