A TEENAGE thug has been convicted of murdering a Cheshire West man with a Rambo-style knife, in a brutal incident that shocked the town.

The 17-year-old from Crewe, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had admitted stabbing Keagan Crimes, from Winsford, through the chest on October 11, 2020, but denied it was murder.

However, after more than eleven hours of deliberation, the jury didn't believe his claims of self-defence as they returned a unanimous guilty verdict. The teen, who shook his head in the dock as the verdict was read out, was also found guilty of stabbing Jason McQuoid, with the intention of causing him grievous bodily harm.

During the trial, which lasted around four weeks at Chester Crown Court, the defendant disputed he had been the aggressor in the incident, which took place at 10.30pm in Cheviot Square.

The single, fatal stab wound, travelled 11cm through Mr Crimes' body, slicing a piece of bone from his third rib, before the blade pierced his heart. The 27-year-old was pronounced dead at around 1.30am the following morning (October 12) after being taken to Royal Stoke University Hospital.

When giving evidence to the court, the youth said he had gone to the shops in Cheviot Square carrying the large knife, with four others, in a bid to scare off some older men.

The dispute had been sparked when the defendant and several others smashed a window at a property in the town just before 6.30am, with a plan to steal drugs they believed to be inside.

Chester and District Standard:

Around 30 minutes later, a group of men forced their way into a flat, and made threats against those inside, including the defendant, about them dealing drugs for people from Liverpool.

Those threats were followed up throughout the day, including via social media app SnapChat and by another visit to the flat, where they were unsuccessful in a second attempt to get inside.

Shortly afterwards, after leaving the flat armed with a knife, the youth and his accomplices were tipped off about the presence of two of the men outside the Premier Store.

The knife-wielding teen and another armed with a hammer, angrily confronted the men as they attempted to leave the store, and had to flee via the backdoor.

Within minutes, around eight to 10 men approached the scene and the teen, who failed to run away in the same direction as his friends, was involved in the fatal altercation.

Although the majority of the incident was captured on CCTV, a crucial period of around 15 seconds was not, and it is during that time, the fatal blow was delivered to Mr Crimes.

Despite claims he was simply defending himself by waving the knife around to hold the men back, the jury decided he had instead deliberately stabbed Mr Crimes through the chest.

After the verdict was read out by the foreperson, Judge Steven Everett, Honorary Recorder for Chester called the defendant 'a young thug'.

He said: "You're a young thug and that is evidenced by the destruction you have caused over the last few years.

"There is likely to be a starting point of 12 years, and I don't see any possibility of it going down, only up.

"I don't want to hear any more about him being a little boy lost, because he definitely isn't."

The youth will return to Chester Crown Court to be sentenced on Monday, February 21.