Teenager, 15, pleads guilty to murdering schoolboy whom he stabbed to death at random before he chillingly pretended to help by posing as an innocent bystander

A 15-year-old boy has admitted randomly killing a 12-year-old boy while walking home from school before posing as an innocent bystander.

Leo Ross was alone in a park in Birmingham’s Hall Green area when he was ambushed by the teenager, who has been on a violent rampage for the past three days.

The attacker, who cannot be named for legal reasons, inflicted a single stab wound on Leo’s abdomen and then insensitively pretended to be a witness by helping raise the alarm.

The boy even told police a made-up story about how he found Leo’s body while paramedics were performing CPR on him a few meters away.

He told an officer: ‘When I got here he was just lying there…I didn’t touch him because that could have implicated me in the case.’

According to police, Leo, who did not know the attacker, was a ‘model student’ who had an impeccable behavioral record at school and had no problems with other students.

The murder on January 21 was the sickening culmination of three days of serious violence inflicted by his killer at random against strangers in Trittiford Mill Park.

He had previously targeted three lone women, including an elderly woman whom he attacked with his own walking stick and seriously injured her by pushing her into the Cole River.

The teenager, wearing a black T-shirt with a gray jumper over his shoulders, pleaded guilty to Leo’s murder as well as two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one count of possessing a knife during a hearing at Birmingham Crown Court today.

He denied assault causing actual bodily harm on October 22, 2024, and assault by battery in relation to two other victims on December 29, 2024, and it was decided that these charges would be included in the file.

He will be sentenced on February 10.

It can now be revealed that the young killer was a criminal who terrorized his neighborhood for months after being kicked out of full-time education.

Leo was ‘funny, sweet and didn’t have a single aggressive bone in his body’, according to his heartbroken family

Leo’s killer, now 15, admitted murder at Birmingham Crown Court

Neighbors of the boy told the Mail that he had been attacking people and damaging property in the months leading up to the park attack and was brought home by police.

On the contrary, Leo was “funny, sweet, and without a single aggressive bone in his body,” according to his heartbroken family.

Police believe he was chosen that day because his killer was “much larger than him physically” and Leo represented an “easy target”.

At around 3pm, Leo was walking home from Christ Church of England Secondary School, wearing his school uniform with the hood of his jacket off against the cold.

Her killer, dressed all in black with his hood up, saw her walking alone through the park.

Earlier that day, his killer had tried to attack a woman left alone in the park but was thwarted, forcing her to flee.

The boy, who was 14 at the time, remained in the park and spotted Leo as he rode around on his bike looking for another victim to attack.

It’s unclear exactly what happened next, but police believe the older boy pulled out a kitchen knife and stabbed Leo without a further struggle.

There was no suggestion that this was a robbery gone wrong as nothing was stolen.

Inspector Joe Davenport, of West Midlands Police, said the only person who could explain what happened was Leo’s killer.

He told the Mail: ‘Unfortunately there was no one else there when Leo died, but the single stab wound, the absence of any other injuries to Leo and the absence of any injuries (to his killer) suggest to me that there was no conflict.

‘He stabbed her in an unprovoked attack.’

After delivering the fatal blow, the boy immediately pretended to have encountered Leo’s body and ran to alert a citizen who called the police.

Leo, an exemplary student, was seen on security cameras walking home from school shortly before the attack.

Security cameras captured the killer leaving his home on the day of the attack, January 21, wearing the same outfit he wore to attack single women the previous two days.

Chilling police body-worn camera footage shows the killer, who was 14 at the time, was captured posing as an innocent bystander just feet away from where Leo was treated by paramedics.

As he gave his false statement to the police, paramedics could clearly be seen in the background trying to save Leo’s life.

His killer had been searching for victims in Trittiford Mill Park after attacking three women before targeting Leo.

Leo was last seen on CCTV turning from Scribers Road and walking towards the park.

CCTV later captured the killer returning home about an hour after the stabbing.

Remarkably, the killer was still hanging around when police and paramedics arrived and could even be seen performing CPR on the police’s body-worn camera.

Det Insp Davenport said: ‘This was really bad behaviour.’

In one of the body-worn images, the attacker was recorded casually lying to officers about how he found the body.

In the background, paramedics can be seen performing CPR on Leo.

The boy told the officer: ‘I go out to ride my bike every now and then because there’s a mechanic shop there and I was going to come here because it goes that way.

‘That’s when I saw her and then I saw this woman walking downstairs and I told her to call you.

‘Then I went to get help from different people and that’s all I know about it.

‘When I came here he was just lying there.’

He later added: ‘I didn’t touch him because that could have implicated me in the case.’

Leo’s killing was the boy’s fourth attack at the park in just three days.

Police reveal Leo’s killer pretended to be an innocent bystander after killing schoolboy with a single stab wound

The boy was responsible for three more attacks at Trittiford Mill Park in Birmingham’s Hall Green area over three days, including the day Leo was killed.

In addition to the woman he attacked on the day Leo was killed, the teenager also beat an elderly woman with his own walking stick and pushed her into the Cole River on January 19.

In this case, too, he posed as a witness to the attack and helped raise the alarm.

The next day, on January 20, he attacked a woman walking alone in the park again, causing serious injuries, and then ran away.

Police arrested the teenager within three hours of Leo’s murder and taunted him as they put him in a police van.

Det Insp Davenport said: ‘He has shown no remorse for his behaviour.

‘When the police arrested him he seemed to find the whole thing quite funny; He was almost goading the officers that they would find nothing on his clothes or in his house.’

But fortunately, this was not the case as officers managed to find the murder weapon thrown into the river.

Most importantly, the knife was found to have both his and Leo’s DNA on it.

Following Leo’s death, his foster family paid tribute to him, saying: ‘We want everyone to know what a wonderful, kind, loving child Leo was.

‘Not just Leo’s life, but all of our lives were taken.

‘Leo will truly be missed by all of us. He was loved by everyone.

‘The family would like to thank the school, the police and everyone who has been involved in the investigation and supported us through this terrible time.’

Speaking after the hearing, Jonathan Roe of the Crown Prosecution Service said: ‘This was a senseless act of violence that devastated a family and robbed a 12-year-old boy of his life.

‘Leo Ross had his whole future ahead of him and he had to be able to walk home from school unscathed.

‘It seems unimaginable that a 14-year-old boy would use a knife to kill or seriously injure another person, causing death, but that’s what happened that day.

‘The defendant’s guilty plea today means Leo’s loved ones have at least been spared the ordeal of a trial. Our thoughts remain with them as they continue to cope with this unimaginable loss.

‘There is no excuse for carrying a knife and I hope this case serves as a reminder of the devastating consequences of carrying and using a knife.’