Khayri Mclean: two boys appear at crown court charged with murder

Two teenagers have appeared before a crown court judge charged with the murder of the Huddersfield schoolboy Khayri Mclean .

Khayri, 15, was stabbed near the entrance of North Huddersfield Trust School last week, later dying in hospital.

On Wednesday the two boys, aged 15 and 16, accused of his murder appeared at Leeds crown court via a video link for a 10-minute hearing. They sat together, one wearing a prison-issue grey T-shirt, the other in a grey sweatshirt.

Judge Tom Bayliss KC was told that neither defendant was in a position to enter pleas. A provisional trial date was set for 13 March, with a pre-trial hearing set for 26 October.

Jonathan Sandiford KC, prosecuting, estimated that the trial could take three weeks.

The court made orders preventing the media from identifying either defendant due to their age. The judge remanded both teenagers to youth detention accommodation.

The appearance came as Khayri’s headteacher, Andrew Fell, expressed his hope that the death would become a “catalyst for change”.

Speaking outside the school, flanked by headteachers, teachers and other members of the community, Fell said: “Today, we stand together as a community in support of Khayri’s family. We are united in shock, numbed by grief and determined that this tragedy must become a catalyst for change.”

He said Khayri was only 15. “A week ago today the hopes, dreams and aspirations of a member of our school community were taken from him in an unimaginably cruel fashion.”

He said staff and students were “bewildered and grief-stricken. We are here today to stand shoulder to shoulder with Khayri’s family.”

He said each and every one of us had to accept responsibility that knife crime “is a scourge on our society and that we all have a part to play in combatting it.

A minute’s silence to remember Khayri was also held.