A teenage boy who randomly murdered 12-year-old Leo Ross in a Birmingham park has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 13 years.
The killer, who was just 14 at the time and cannot yet be named for legal reasons, stabbed Leo once before pretending to be an innocent bystander and helping raise the alarm. The judge described the attack as “cowardly” and said it marked the horrifying end of three days of random violence against strangers.
On the afternoon of January 21 last year, Leo was walking home alone from Christ Church of England Secondary Academy School. It was around 3pm, and he was wearing his school uniform with his hood up against the cold.
He planned to meet a friend near a tree in Trittiford Mill Park in the Hall Green area of Birmingham. Leo never arrived. Police later said he was a model student with no behavioral issues and no known problems with anyone. He did not know his attacker.
The violence that led to Leo’s death had begun two days earlier. On January 19, the teenage attacker targeted Valerie Mann, an 82-year-old woman walking near the River Cole in the same park.
He approached her from behind and shoved her forward, sending her into the river and a nearby ditch. As she struggled, he told her, “I tried to drown you, but now I’m going to kill you instead,” before striking her several times with her own walking stick.
Moments later, he switched roles and called out to others nearby, saying, “There’s an old lady in the water and she needs help.” The victim survived but was left badly injured, suffering bruises, a head wound, a broken nose, black eyes, a fractured rib, and two broken fingers that required surgery.
She later said she believed she was going to die.
The following day, January 20, the teenager attacked again. This time, his victim was 72-year-old Christine Canty, who was also walking through the park alone. She was left bleeding heavily from a head injury. Despite the seriousness of the assault, the violence did not stop.
On January 21, just half an hour before Leo was stabbed, the boy attacked another elderly woman, 79-year-old Diana Copplestone. Each victim was alone, and each was targeted at random.
After attacking Ms Copplestone, the teenager did not flee the park. Instead, prosecutors said he remained in the area, cycling around and looking for another person to hurt. It was during this time that he saw Leo walking through the park.
Police believe the boy pulled out a kitchen knife and stabbed Leo in the stomach with little or no struggle. Leo collapsed, fatally wounded, having done nothing to provoke the attack.
What happened next stunned investigators. After stabbing Leo, the attacker immediately pretended he had just discovered the injured boy. He ran to a member of the public and helped raise the alarm. When police and paramedics arrived, he was still there.
Bodyworn camera footage later showed him watching calmly as CPR was carried out on Leo just a few feet away. He even gave police a made-up story about how he had come across Leo’s body, while medics desperately tried to save the child’s life.
Leo was pronounced dead, and the attacker was arrested later that night on suspicion of assaulting Ms Copplestone. That arrest led police to test his clothing, where they found Leo’s blood on his t-shirt.
The murder weapon, a kitchen knife recovered near the River Cole, also contained the boy’s DNA. These findings tied him directly to Leo’s killing, The BBC reports.
At Birmingham Crown Court, the teenager was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 13 years, meaning he will not be considered for parole until he is 27.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Choudhury told him, “What you did in the park last January was horrific and shocking. You went around the park looking for people to hurt. You chose people who were weaker and smaller than you. I hope you realise how cowardly your actions were.”
The judge added, “Within half-an-hour you used a knife you had on you to stab little Leo. Leo did not deserve to die. His family did not deserve to lose him.”
The judge said the teenager’s behavior after the attacks, including posing as a bystander, showed he wanted to enjoy the chaos he caused. “You were determined to extract maximum enjoyment of the chaos,” he said.
Although the judge acknowledged that the boy was only 14 at the time, he said most people would struggle to understand how such violence could take place over just three days.
“You engaged in a campaign of serious violence against different people, culminating in the fatal stabbing of Leo,” he told the court.
The sentencing hearing included emotional statements from Leo’s family and the foster family he was living with at the time of his death.
Leo’s mother, Rachel Fisher, told the court through tears, “Leo was truly the most kind, funny and caring little boy anyone could’ve known. Leo didn’t have a bad bone in his body and didn’t deserve to die. Leo loved life. He had a heart of absolute gold.”
She said the family had been shattered by his death, which happened on his grandmother’s birthday, and revealed that Leo’s grandfather suffered a heart attack at the funeral, per The Irish Sun.
Ms Fisher added, “Everyone has lost the most beautiful young soul – for what? We will never know why such an innocent young boy minding his own business, walking home from school, was robbed of his life for no reason whatsoever. It should never have happened.”
She described losing a child as the worst pain imaginable and said Leo’s death would haunt her forever.
Leo’s father, Chris Ross, asked the defendant to look at him as he spoke. “You killed my son Leo Ross, I will never be the same again,” he said.
“It breaks my heart knowing Leo was alone and I wasn’t there to protect him, because of you. The heartbreak will never go away. My life has been a living hell since.” He told the court that Leo “would never have hurt a soul” and said he would always miss his son.
Amy Weston, from Leo’s foster family, spoke about the impact on Leo’s younger sister. She said the nine-year-old had been left devastated and sometimes placed Leo’s glasses on her teddy bear and sat it in his old seat at the dining table.
She described Leo as a boy who loved crystals, Pokémon, and animals. Referring to the killer’s actions after the stabbing, she said pretending to be a bystander showed a “complete lack of humanity” and proved how dangerous he was.
Prosecutor Rachel Brand KC outlined the three days of escalating violence, describing each attack in detail. She told the court how the boy had switched between attacker and helper, often pretending to assist victims after hurting them. The pattern, she said, showed deliberate and calculated behavior.
In mitigation, defence barrister Alistair Webster KC said the boy, now 15, had “formidable mental health problems.”
He told the court the teenager had been diagnosed with childhood conduct disorder and ADHD and suffered from recurring episodes of self-harm. He described behavior such as hitting himself in the face and storing his own blood and said the boy had previously experienced suicidal thoughts.
Mr Webster said these disorders did not excuse what happened but were important in understanding how it occurred.
The teenager pleaded guilty last month to Leo’s murder, two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, one count of assault causing actual bodily harm, and one count of possessing a knife.
Although the judge ruled that the killer can be named, he allowed 24 hours for an appeal to be lodged, meaning the boy can be identified in reports from 1pm the following day.
