Boy who murdered Leo Ross, 12, in random attack detained for at least 13 years

A “cowardly” 15-year-old boy who stabbed schoolboy Leo Ross to death in a random attack, tried to drown an 82-year-old woman and attacked two other elderly women days before the fatal incident has been detained for a minimum of 13 years.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, injured three women in separate attacks in the days before he stabbed 12-year-old Leo in the stomach as he walked home from school through a country park and then loitered around to watch the aftermath so he could “derive maximum enjoyment” from his actions.

Leo died after being taken to hospital from a riverside path in Shire Country Park, Hall Green, Birmingham, on January 21 last year.

Sentencing the 15-year-old defendant, who appeared to show no reaction in the dock at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday, judge Mr Justice Choudhury KC said he deliberately chose people who were “weaker and smaller” than him to attack, including vulnerable elderly women and a young boy.

He said: “What you did in the park last January is horrific and shocking. You went around the park looking for people to hurt. You chose people who were weaker and smaller than you. I hope you realise how cowardly your actions were.

“Within half an hour (of the final attack) you used a knife you had on you to stab little Leo. Leo did not deserve to die. His family did not deserve to lose him.”

The defendant, who was 14 at the time of the killing, admitted Leo’s murder at a hearing at Birmingham Crown Court in January.

He also admitted two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent on January 19 and 20 2025 and assault occasioning actual bodily harm on January 21 2025 in relation to the separate attacks on other victims, as well as having a bladed article on the day he killed Leo.

He denied assault occasioning actual bodily harm on October 22 2024 and assault by beating on December 29 2024 in relation to two further alleged victims, and those charges were ordered to lie on file.

Prosecution counsel Rachel Brand KC told the sentencing hearing that the defendant, who sat in the dock wearing a navy blue Nike tracksuit, had attacked women in the days before he killed Leo.

Describing the first incident, Ms Brand said Leo’s killer told an 82-year-old woman, “I tried to drown you, but now I’m going to kill you” after pushing her into a river and hitting her with her own walking pole.

The woman was walking alone in the country park at some point between 12.30pm and 1.15pm on January 19 when she was injured.

Ms Brand said: “The defendant approached her from behind and pushed her forcefully down and forward. She fell into a ditch next to the river. She believes she had been under water and found herself soaked.

“The defendant told her, ‘I tried to drown you. But now I’m going to kill you instead’, and he struck her several times with her own walking pole.”

The court heard the attacker then told her “I would like to get some help, but you will tell on me”.

He went on to tell someone nearby “there’s an old lady in the water and she needs help”, the court heard.

The victim was taken to hospital and was found to have sustained multiple injuries including a broken nose, black eyes, and fractures to a rib and two of her fingers, which required surgery.

The court heard a 72-year-old woman was attacked the day before he murdered the 12-year-old schoolboy, causing her to bleed “profusely” from a head wound.

While on his bike, he pushed or struck her from behind then apologised to her before he fled the area, leaving her on the ground unconscious and bleeding from a head wound.

She suffered broken ribs in the attack and had to have hip replacement surgery.

The third attack, which happened within half an hour before he stabbed Leo to death, saw a 79-year-old woman pushed to the ground from behind.

Ms Brand said the boy “turned and smiled” at the woman after the attack.

The courtroom was packed with members of Leo’s family who sobbed at various points throughout the hearing.

Speaking from the witness box, Leo’s mother Rachel Fisher said in a victim impact statement that her family had been “shattered” by Leo’s death.

The defendant looked down at the floor as Ms Fisher sobbed and said: “He was just an innocent little boy whose life was taken before he even became a teenager. He was only 12 years old.

“Everyone has lost the most beautiful little soul, for what? We won’t ever know why such an innocent young boy, just walking home from school, minding his business, was robbed of his life for no reason whatsoever.”

Leo’s father Chris Ross told the defendant to look at him as he gave his statement.

“You killed my son, your horrendous act has destroyed me,” he said to the teenager. “Leo was loved by everyone, everyone said how special he was. He was the kindest little boy.

“It breaks my heart to think he was alone and I wasn’t there to protect him because of you. He was on his own, scared, lying in a bush.

“Leo would never have hurt a soul, he never did anything to anybody. That day has meant I am living a life sentence, you know.

“Without my special little boy there is no minimum term to my sentence. It breaks my heart. Leo, I will always miss you and I will get justice.”

In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Choudhury told the teenage killer that the devastation his “campaign of serious violence” has caused is “hard to comprehend”.

The judge said: “You are still a child – you were 14 years old at the time of these offences.

“Most right-thinking people would struggle to comprehend what you did over the course of just three days.”

He added: “You engaged in a campaign of serious violence against different people, culminating in the fatal stabbing of Leo.

“The devastation you have caused to so many lives is hard to comprehend.”

The judge said the defendant’s behaviour of alerting people to what he had done to his victims by pretending he was an innocent bystander was part of a pattern in which he enjoyed “witnessing the havoc you have created”.

He said the defendant’s attacks were not impulsive and that he had thought about what he would say to people afterwards so he could “derive maximum enjoyment” from what he had done and that the defendant’s actions “indicate quite sophisticated and callous thinking”.

He said: “(A report) suggests you express some remorse. It appears to me you lack even the most basic insight into your actions.

“You might say you are sorry, but it does not appear to me that you understand what that means.”

After applications from the media, the judge said, in his view, the killer should be named because of the public interest in the case.

After allowing defence barrister Alistair Webster KC some time to consider the ruling, the judge said the teenager can be identified in reporting from 1pm on February 11 to allow time for a possible appeal against the decision.

The judge said the public would want to know “what could have led a child to commit such acts”.

Addressing the safety of the defendant in the secure institution he is being detained in, Mr Justice Choudhury said: “Many of the incidents of violence recorded as involving the defendant over the last year while in detention have involved violence by him on others or on himself.”

He added that some of the other boys in the facility already know the defendant’s identity, which “has not resulted in any attacks” on him.