A 15-year-old boy who stabbed a teenager in the heart while chatting about cricket with a friend in Birmingham city center has been jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 13 years for the murder.

Muhammad Hassam Ali, known as Ali, died in hospital on January 20, just hours after he and his friend were followed around the city by two masked men they did not know, and were later stabbed in the chest by one of them as he sat there. Victoria Square.

Judge Mr Justice Garnham said the murder of 17-year-old Ali, who was detained at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, was “yet another example of the terrible consequences of carrying a knife in public”.

He said: “It’s clear to me that he (Ali) was a much-loved son and brother and his family are completely devastated by his death.”

None of the young people, who could not be identified for legal reasons due to their ages, showed any signs of emotion while being sentenced.

The jury took just over four hours to reach a unanimous verdict in July, finding the teenager who carried out the fatal attack guilty of murder and carrying a knife, and finding his friend, who was standing nearby at the time of the stabbing, guilty of manslaughter and carrying a knife. .

Mr Justice Garnham told the second teenager, also 15, that he should be detained in a safe place for five years.

The trial at Coventry Crown Court earlier this year heard that Ali and his friend were “just sitting and chatting and using their phones” and that two teenagers approached them “as if from nowhere”.

The youths were following them through Grand Central Mall and New Street before encountering Ali and his friend in Victoria Square and did not identify themselves; instead they asked Ali and his friend where they came from and if they knew who “jumped over his wife”. theirs a week ago.

Following the conversation, which lasted approximately four minutes and in which the killer claimed to have told Ali and his friend to “go away” and “go away”, Ali allegedly said: “Brother, I don’t know what you are talking about” he said “you are making me angry” before one of the young men took out a large knife and stabbed him in the chest. causing him to stab him and they both ran away.

In his statement, the young man, who had the knife in his trousers and wore a Covid-style face mask, hat and gloves before stabbing Ali, told the court that he only wanted to “scare” Ali and his friend. He did not intend to seriously harm or kill anyone.

He said that he carried a knife with him to crowded places for protection because he had been attacked many times before, and that he felt “regret and sadness” when he learned that he had killed Ali.

The other young man, who did not testify at the hearing but spoke to the police after his arrest, stated that he was “shocked and cried” after the attack and claimed that he did not know that his friend had held a knife against him until he revealed himself. BT.

He also said that he had never seen Ali or his friend before and that he only acted with the killer in case he was “hit”.

Michael Ivers KC, representing the teenager who carried out the fatal knife attack, said the defendant was remorseful and prayed regularly for Ali and his family.

He said: “He is not a man who is in any way proud of what happened. He really regrets what happened.

“If he could turn back time, he would do so not for his own sake, but because of the impact it would have on others.”

Charlie Sherrard KC, acting for the other teenager, said his client had “always been remorseful” for what happened.

Sentencing the pair, who sat on the dock in white shirts and dark trousers surrounded by four dockers, Mr Justice Garnham said the first teenager pulled out a knife “for no apparent reason”.

He said: “You put forward as evidence that Ali’s words caused you to fear for your life safety. The jury did not accept this, and I do not accept it either.

“They did nothing beyond what was reasonable in trying to persuade you to leave. “There was no justification for pulling a knife on an unarmed young man who posed no risk to you.”

Addressing the second young man, he said: “You knew that (your friend) was carrying a knife, you knew that he intended to use it and you encouraged him to use it.

“I accept that you didn’t think he would use this to kill Ali.”

Family members of both teenagers wept in the public gallery as the pair were sentenced.

In a statement read by prosecutor Mark Heywood KC, Ali’s family, who were in court for the hearing, described him as a young, budding engineer and said they would never get over his death.

They said: “The loss of a child is devastating and life-destroying, but the fact that someone took their own life in such a horrific and brutal way will always haunt us.”