Jurors have heard a boy describe how another teenager “pounced” on his best friend before stabbing him on a beach.
The 17-year-old said his friend Kayden Moy was attacked after he slipped and fell as they tried to run away following a confrontation in Irvine, North Ayrshire.
Cole Turley, 18, has admitted murdering Kayden, 16, from East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, who died following the incident on May 17 last year.
Jay Stewart, 18, and a 15-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons are on trial at the High Court in Glasgow accused of murdering Kayden while acting along with Turley.
It is alleged that while acting with Turley, Stewart and the 15-year-old pursued Kayden, causing him to fall to the ground, and repeatedly stabbed him on the body with a knife, leaving him so badly injured that he died.
Stewart and the 15-year-old deny all charges against them and have lodged special defences of incrimination.
In a video-recorded police interview played to the jury, the then 16-year-old witness described how he and friends were sitting on the beach when rocks started being thrown at them from above by people he named as Stewart, the 15-year-old and others.
He said he and Kayden went up to confront them but as they reached the top of the dune, Turley brought out a knife and Stewart an extendable baton.
The witness said: “Then out of nowhere Cole just started running at us. I ran to the right, so did Kayden, I jumped over a grass ledge, Kayden slipped and Cole leaped over and jumped on him.
“He had a knife and it hit. I saw one stab.”
He described how he ran back to help Kayden who was standing up, and he and another friend supported him as they walked back down to the beach shouting to people to phone for an ambulance.
He said: “I saw blood going down Kayden’s leg and him going really white.”
A nurse who happened to be on the beach came to help and he himself at one point held his friend’s head, the witness said.
In the interview, recorded on June 5 2025, one of the police officers asked what Stewart was doing with the baton at the top of the dune.
The witness replied: “Swinging it around and shouting at us and that’s when Cole pounced.”
Asked what the 15-year-old did, the witness said he remembered him throwing rocks but that was all. He said “he didn’t hit anyone, he just said c’mon then”.
The witness said he spoke to police at the scene and told them “my best pal has been stabbed by Cole Turley”.
The court was also shown a video of a statement the witness gave in April this year.
Donald Findlay KC, representing Stewart, asked why the group had been at the beach and whether they had been drinking.
The witness said they had gone to the beach planning to “get the tunes on and get steaming” and he himself had been drinking Buckfast, and that hundreds of young people were at the seaside that day.
The court also heard that earlier in the afternoon the witness and another boy were involved in a fight with another boy on the beach but nobody was hurt.
Mr Findlay asked why the witness and his friends did not “retreat” when rocks allegedly started to be thrown at them.
He replied that whichever way they went he thought the other boys would catch them.
Earlier, Detective Constable Ally Dunn, who was crime scene manager for the incident, was shown images and footage by prosecutor Liam Ewing KC.
These included images of a figure jurors were told was Turley holding a knife above a figure they were told was Kayden.
During cross-examination, Mr Findlay said: “This is a graphic image of Turley committing the crime of murder and when he did so he was alone.”
He asked Mr Dunn whether he agreed the image showed Turley acting alone.
The police officer replied: “At that point, yes.”
Stewart and the 15-year-old face a number of other charges, including that Stewart is accused of having a baton and a knife or similar instrument and the 15-year-old of having a knife on May 17 last year.
They are also accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice over four days between May 17 and 21 in Irvine, East Kilbride and elsewhere in a number of ways.
These include allegations they wiped a knife on the ground to try and remove blood, fled the beach and hid in bushes there, and later hid knives in a divan bed frame and a freezer.
Prosecutors also allege they discarded their blood-stained clothing, phoned someone and asked them to retrieve and burn the clothes, and changed into alternative clothing.
They are also accused of challenging others to fight and brandishing knives and a baton or similar instruments at Irvine beach on May 17 last year.
It is also alleged they “culpably and recklessly” threw rocks at members of the public there, placing them in danger of injury.
The trial continues before Judge Lord Scott.
