Teen pleads guilty to murdering schoolboy on walk home

A 15-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to murdering 12-year-old Leo Ross in a random knife attack as he walked home from school.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, entered the plea at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday.

Leo was heading home from school in Birmingham’s Yardley Wood on 21 January 2025 when he was fatally stabbed on a riverside path in Shire Country Park.

Members of the public rushed to his aid, but he later died in hospital.

Leo, a student at Christ Church, Church of England Secondary Academy, is believed to be the youngest victim of knife crime in the West Midlands.

His family described him in a statement as an “amazing, kind, loving” boy.

On Thursday, the youth, who was 14 at the time of the killing and is now 15, also admitted two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to previous attacks on separate victims, as well as having a bladed article on the day he killed Leo.

He denied assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault by beating in relation to two other people and those charges were ordered to lie on file.

Subsequent police inquiries established that the knife used to kill Leo was thrown into a nearby river, while the youth responsible, riding a bike, had previously hunted down and attacked several women in local parkland.

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An inquiry by West Midlands Police also found that the killer opted to hang around to talk to officers at the murder scene, falsely claiming he had stumbled across Leo lying fatally injured beside the River Cole.

It also emerged that Leo had no connection with his attacker and was subjected to what senior officers believe was a completely random and unprovoked stabbing.

The defendant’s guilty pleas were entered more than six months after a trial was postponed to allow psychiatric experts to assess the defendant, who cannot be identified due to his age.

Judge Paul Farrer KC said sentencing would be set for 10 February and would likely last the full day.

He told the defendant: “I can’t sentence you today for a number of reasons. You will be sentenced on the 10th of February and you will be brought from wherever you are being kept to Birmingham, where you can speak to your lawyers.

“In the meantime, you are remanded into youth detention.”