Boy brutally attacked after being lured down alleyway through Snapchat

A teenager was stabbed with a machete after being lured down an alleyway through Snapchat. Kevin Biji, now serving a life sentence, was convicted of attempted murder for the savage assault committed at the age of 16.

The other teenager nearly died as a result of being stabbed twice to the chest and was only saved thanks to life-saving surgery.

He was able to cycle home and seek help from family members in spite of the brutal attack, then texted his partner to warn her that he "might die".

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A trial at Liverpool Crown Court heard that Biji and the complainant attended the same sixth-form college and had been seeing the same girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons and will instead by referred to as Girl A.

On the evening of April 9 this year, the boy - also aged 16 - was at home when he received a Snapchat message from her account "inviting him round to her house for sex", the Liverpool Echo reports.

David Birrell, prosecuting, described how the teen was "a little suspicious" and asked "whether she was with the defendant", but was told that she was not. They then agreed to meet down a side street off Hailsham Road in Aigburth.

He cycled to this location and waited down the initially deserted alleyway before, around 10.30pm, Biji "suddenly emerged" wearing a balaclava and brandishing a "machete about a foot long".

The now 17-year-old, of Kamala Way in Norris Green, "lunged" at his victim with the blade and told him "that's my ting", a reference to Girl A, as the boy desperately attempted to fend off the attack using his bike

Despite being stabbed twice in the chest, he was able to get back on his bicycle and pedal away as his assailant shouted at him to "come back". He managed to flee all the way home and, upon entering, shouted to his mum that he had been stabbed as she and his sister administered first aid.

After messaging his own "on off girlfriend", Girl B, telling her that he "had been stabbed and might die", he was rushed to Aintree Hospital in an ambulance. Doctors thereafter discovered that the weapon had penetrated the membrane of his heart and caused a life-threatening build-up of fluid, although he was saved by an emergency operation.

Girl B meanwhile messaged Biji and "asked him what had gone on". He replied saying "he came here to f*** her" and chillingly warned that "he would do it to him again", as well as texting Girl A "telling her to hide her mobile phone".

The police visited his home in the early hours of the following morning, at which time he ran to the rear of the house and attempted to escape via the back garden before being detained by officers. A knife and a balaclava were seized during a search of his bedroom.

Under interview, Biji gave a prepared statement claiming that he "simply went out to speak to" the other boy, who then apparently began hitting him with his bike. He maintained that he had then used the machete in self-defence but said "he didn't even know he had stabbed" the complainant.

However, medical experts subsequently found that his injuries were "not consistent with accidental contact". Doctors further stated that the wounds had been caused by a "razor sharp knife" using "a lot of force, equivalent to a hard punch".

In a statement which was read to the court on his behalf, the boy outlined how he suffered a "great deal of pain for a considerable amount of time" and sleeping difficulties. He detailed how the incident affected his performance in his GCSEs, while he "no longer trusts people" and is "vigilant in public places".

As well as experiencing "nightmares and flashbacks", he was left with a "massive scar on his chest" as a result of the attack. He labelled this a "constant reminder of what Kevin did that night".

Biji was found guilty of attempted murder by a jury, having previously admitted the lesser offending of wounding with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm and possession of a bladed article in a public place but denied any intention to kill. He has one previous conviction for inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to an incident in 2022, when he was aged only 14.

Defendants under the age of 18 ordinarily cannot be named by the media. However, a judge has lifted these reporting restrictions following a legal challenge by the ECHO due to the "great gravity" of his crime.

Lloyd Morgan, defending, told the court on Friday: "Kevin wants me to express his regret, remorse and shame at committing this offence. The issue at trial was his intention. He accepted causing the injuries. If the opportunity was presented to him of restorative justice he would welcome that opportunity which is, for someone of his age, a very mature step.

"A sentence of life detention is always a sentence of last resort. That should particularly be the case with a young offender. He suffered many childhood traumas that impacted on his development, emotionally and mentally.

"While his previous conviction is serious and it involved the carrying of a knife, it was committed when he was 14 years of age and two years before this offence. While he was in possession of a knife on that occasion, he did not use the knife to inflict the injuries that were sustained by the victim in that case.

"He had been exposed to domestic violence. He was displaced from his parents. He moved out and was brought up by his grandparents until he was seven or eight.

"He witnessed alcohol abuse by his father. He lacked a positive male role model during the course of a difficult upbringing of emotional abuse and neglect. These are not excuses for his behaviour, but they do provide an explanation as to why this young man may have behaved in the way he did."

Appearing via video link to HMP Wetherby yesterday afternoon wearing a grey Nike jumper, Biji put his head in his hands and thereafter sat shaking his head after he was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 10 years in a young offenders' institute. He was also handed a restraining order banning him from contacting his victim indefinitely.

Sentencing, Judge Stuart Driver KC said: "The defendant put on a balaclava and picked up the knife. He ambushed his victim. He stabbed him twice with the force of a hard punch. He wanted him to die.

"The victim continues to suffer physical harm, including a large permanent scar, and psychological harm. The facts of this offence are very grave. A pre-sentence report concludes that he poses a very high risk of serious harm to others. What I observed of Kevin during the trial showed nothing to undermine that suggestion.

"It was planned. The victim was deliberately lured into a trap. There was an intention to kill and death was only avoided, firstly, by mere luck and, secondly, by surgical skill.

"The level of risk is, in my judgement, regrettably very high. There is no reliable estimate of the length of time that Kevin will remain such a danger.

"Accordingly, the available alternative sentences do not provide sufficient protection. Although a sentence of detention for life is a sentence of last resort, in my judgement, not withstanding the youth of the defendant, I am driven to the conclusion that the facts are clearly such as to justify the imposition of a sentence of detention for life."