Boy, 11, stabbed baby whose crying spoiled his PlayStation game
By Nigel Bunyan


An 11-year-old boy stabbed his baby nephew in the stomach after the infant's crying disrupted his PlayStation game.

The boy told police that in the minutes before the incident he had kept "dying" as he played the game, based on the cartoon characters The Incredibles, in his bedroom. The crying made him feel like "an erupting volcano''.

He paused the game and went to get a kitchen knife to repair a toy. Then he went into the baby's bedroom and stabbed him in his carry cot. The blade broke and he hid the knife under a television cabinet.

Yesterday the boy, dressed in a black suit, white shirt and purple tie, sat beside his father at Hull Crown Court and denied attempted murder on Dec 15 last year. He also denied wounding with intent and wounding.

Gary Burrell, QC, said the incident happened at a time when the family was under strain. The boy's sister was in hospital and their mother was looking after the baby as well as her own children.

Having always been "the baby of the family", he felt pushed out.

Before the stabbing a teacher had told the boy off for playing truant. He had replied: "There is a lot going on in my head.''

He began crying, saying that his family was looking after a baby who was noisy. He added: "The baby is doing my head in." The teacher also recalled an allegation that the boy was being bullied.

Mr Burrell said that on the day of the incident the boy's sister was out, his stepfather was asleep and his mother had gone round to a friend's home. Ten minutes later her son arrived in great distress and said: "I have done something awful. Something really bad has happened to [the baby].''

His mother returned to her flat and found the baby bleeding heavily in his carry cot. He was taken to the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby, for surgery to a life-threatening injury and remained in hospital for six days.

When police interviewed the boy he recalled hearing his nephew crying and described fetching the knife and mending a toy from McDonald's. Then he went into the baby's room. "I still had the knife in my hand and I know I hit him with it in the bedroom. Without realising it, I stabbed him," he allegedly said.

He said he had stabbed the baby with a force "somewhere in the middle'' of his capability and described his nephew's eyes "going big" as the knife entered.

Henry Pearson, a consultant general surgeon at the hospital, said the knife had been pushed in one direction and then possibly in two other directions while inside the baby's stomach.