The defendants accused of the double murder of two teenagers in South Bristol have been described as the equivalent of ‘a five-a-side team’ when they went together to take revenge for an attack on a house, a court was told.
The jury at Bristol Crown Court today (Tuesday, November 5) was told the four armed teenagers who jumped out of a car and inflicted fatal stab wounds to Max Dixon and Mason Rist in just 33 seconds were ‘a pack of four hunting down two’ as they chased the pair down a road in Knowle West.
Beginning his summing up near the end of the trial, Ray Tully, prosecuting, told the jury that the evidence pointed to all five accused of murder, acting together as a team to carry out the attack, including the driver of the vehicle that took them from Hartcliffe to Knowle West.
“The four young defendants…are clearly acting jointly,” Mr Tully said, as he showed the jury the CCTV of the attack in Ilminster Avenue again. “They are a pack of four hunting down two – five in fact, because the fifth member is in the car waiting.”
Showing the moment the four teenagers get out of the car, approach and begin chasing Max and Mason, Mr Tully said: “It doesn’t matter who gets hold of which boy. That’s an irrelevance, it’s a matter of indifference to those involved.
“It might get you some bragging rights afterwards, but that’s all. What you’ll know is that you each played your part. They intend each boy should be seriously harmed – why else would you be taking weapons
“It’s a joint mission and they are supporting each other. There is a feeling of strength in numbers. They can afford to be bold in the certain knowledge that they’ve got armed back up. Each of them has got each other’s backs,” Mr Tully said.
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“They can draw strength in the knowledge that they’ve got a getaway driver with the engine running ready to pick them up. Those two boys are outnumbered, outgunned, with each of the five defendants providing assistance and encouragement to the others.
“Each of the defendants know they are part of a team. This is five a side team. It might be only one or two of them that get the goal, but it’s a team effort,” he added.
Mr Tully began his summing up after the judge in the case, Mrs Justice May, gave advice to the jury on the points of law in the case, and the ‘route to verdict’ they must take – a series of questions they must ask themselves in relation to each of the defendants and each of the two charges they face.
She talked at length to the jury about the principle of ‘joint enterprise’. It is agreed that three of the defendants – Antony Snook, 45, Riley Tolliver, 18, and a 16-year-old who cannot be named, did not inflict any of the fatal blows themselves, but the judge tells the jury that they can be guilty of both murders if the jury decides they encouraged or assisted those that did.
“The prosecution must show that the acts of assistance and encouragement took place before or during the attack,” said Mrs Justice May. “The prosecution case is that this is a joint attack, each of the defendants participated by encouraging, assisting or participating in the attack.”
Snook, Tolliver and the 16-year-old defendant have all pleaded ‘not guilty’ to both counts of murder. A 15-year-old defendant has pleaded ‘guilty’ to the murder of Mason Rist, but ‘not guilty’ to Max’s murder, while the 17-year-old defendant has admitted the manslaughter of Max, but pleaded ‘not guilty’ to both murders.
Mr Tully told the jury the overall picture was important to look at the joint nature of what happened after the attack on a house in Hartcliffe, around an hour earlier. He reminded the jury that they had heard evidence that a group from Knowle West were quickly being blamed.
“Within ten minutes there are text messages saying ‘Westers are about’, they are already talking to each other about who is responsible, and Westers are being blamed,” said Mr Tully.
“You may think that one of the things they would have done was to look at the house’s CCTV. They would be furious. They would want to plot and plan for revenge,” he added.
Within an hour, the four teenagers, each armed with weapons, are being driven by Antony Snook. “They spend about 12 minutes or so driving around Knowle, sighted on various CCTV cameras. By 23.14 and 13 seconds they stop in Ilminster Avenue. Much of what took place after that is captured on CCTV cameras,” he added.
Speaking about what happened at the moment the four teenagers jumped out of Antony Snook’s car, Mr Tully pointed out to the jury that the 16-year-old defendant and Riley Tolliver were the first to approach Max and Mason – who had nothing to do with the attack on the house in Hartcliffe and were only walking to their local takeaway that night. The 15-year-old defendant was the first to reach Mason, and the 17-year-old defendant was the first ‘to reach Max’.
“That’s random, it’s happenstance, it comes down to which of them was placed where in the road, to be able to track them down and get hold of them,” said Mr Tully. “What was in the mind of each of those defendants when they got out of the car and approached the two boys? They had a shared common goal and that was to attack both of the boys with the weapons they had brought with them and to cause serious harm to them.
“If it’s suggested to you, and I’m sure it will be, that one or more were simply engaged in an effort to frighten the boys, as Mr Hughes (the defence counsel for Riley Tolliver, 18) said ‘frighten the living daylights out of them’, then why would you hide your weapon – you would want to show your weapon,” said Mr Tully, pointing out to the jury a CCTV clip that showed the 16-year-old defendant hiding his large machete-like sword behind his back and legs as he approached Max and Mason.
“You’ve heard of the phrase ‘sabre-rattling’. It wasn’t sabre-rattling, it’s about sabre-using. They keep the weapons out of sight until the last moment, and that tells you something of the intention. We say that they instinctively knew what the purpose was: You want to get as close as possible to them before you get your knife out. That’s what they were doing, hiding their knives,” he added.
Mr Tully told the jury the CCTV clip showing the moment the four teenagers got out of the car was important. “It shows all you need to know about the joint nature of what they were doing. All four are armed. Both boys are the targets. None of that is surprising, because it is a direct response to what had happened earlier in Hartcliffe,” he said.
“We suggest that there is an abundance of evidence that permits you to conclude that there was a common purpose. It was: ‘Don’t mess with us but if you do there’s going to be serious consequences’. Each of them bears joint responsibility – it doesn’t matter a jot who inflicted the fatal wounds to Max or Mason. Each of the defendants played their role. They acted jointly, they jointly bear responsibility for the killing of both boys,” he added.
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