A man was said to have been ‘gurgling’ blood after he was stabbed six times in what jurors heard was a ‘brutal and vicious’ attack in an Oxfordshire park.
Opening the prosecution case at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday afternoon, Mark Trafford KC said the 'attack' by a group of teenagers on alleged victim Danils Bogdancevs was ‘as quick as it was ferocious’.
He told jurors trying the case of three youths accused of attempted murder that it was a ‘stroke of good luck’ for Mr Bogdancevs that a trained first aider was in the People’s Park, Banbury, on June 11 last year.
The barrister said: “If she had not been so trained and not been there that afternoon, these charges that you heard read to you – to these defendants – a few moments ago may well have been very different.
READ MORE: Seven people jailed at Oxford's courts in February
"The fact that they are not are in no small part down to her first aid training."
The three boys, none of whom can be named as they are under-18, deny attempted murder and wounding with intent.
Mr Trafford told the jury that one of the three boys, who we will call X, was the ‘ringleader’ in the assault.
Around half an hour before the stabbing, he had chased Mr Bogdancevs around the outdoor gym area in the park.
Part of the pursuit was caught on mobile phone footage and played to the jury.
It showed tracksuited X chase after Mr Bogdancevs – pushing him, throwing punches and saying ‘words like “f***” or “f*** off”’. Another defendant, who we will call Y, could be seen sitting down as the chase played out.
The jury was told that X was seen apparently using his mobile phone to call others. Later, a number of his friends arrived in the park from an alleyway.
Mr Bogdancevs’s friend, Adam, had also arrived. Mr Trafford said the complainant appeared ‘extremely tense’ to his friend and was ‘pacing around, he was very distracted, he was very concerned about things going on around him’.
“What then, members of the jury, in fact happened?” the prosecutor asked.
“Very quickly once all these people were together, Danils began to remonstrate with X.”
The older man was asking X to ‘step away, leave this out, we don’t want any trouble, words such as that; “back off”, he particularly said’, the jury heard.
Mr Trafford said: “Members of the jury, Danils did not want any trouble in the park that day. He knew, of course, that X was intent on violence. His efforts to avoid violence simply by saying ‘go away’ were ineffective.”
Boy X began to push the older man, the jury was told. He was alleged to have told him: “I’m going to f*** you up, mate. I’m going to f*** you up right now.”
While there were four of his friends in the surrounding area, X was said to have been the ‘ringleader’ of the gang.
“He was the main person involved. He was the person who started it. He was the person who chased and he was the person who started the last fight.
“But to be quite clear, they then all acted together.
“They surrounded Danils in order to attack him and they were either with or they joined X in carrying out this attack; encouraging him and assisting him in the violence that was then meted out.”
The group was said to have kicked and punched the older man ‘altogether’. Although X was said to be the boy who got their victim to the ground, it was allegedly a ‘joint effort’ to get him to the floor.
Mr Trafford said the complainant was shouting ‘get off, help, help’. “Danils was outnumbered. He had absolutely no chance.”
Although he was ‘not to know it at the time’, as well as being punched and kicked, he had also been stabbed six times. He suffered a punctured lung and the knife narrowly missed his kidney, the jury heard.
“A member of the group when attacking him got out a knife and plunged it on multiple occasions into the prone and the defenceless back of Danils as he faced the ground.
Members of the jury, this was in clear view of the rest of the attacking group, who continued their aggression as the stabbing took place,” the prosecutor said.
None of the members of the attacking group tried to stop anyone else in the gang, he added.
The first aider who went to Mr Bogdancevs’s aid was around 20 metres away at the time and saw the ‘glint of that knife’, the jury was told.
Boy X was said to have ‘finished’ the assault by stamping on Mr Bogdancevs’s head. Mr Trafford told jurors X had walked ‘nonchalantly’ away and exchanged words with an older couple nearby: “Extraordinarily, you may think, [he said] he was sorry that they had to see that.”
He claimed that the victim had used an offensive racial slur and that he had had to call ‘my boys’ to ‘sort’ the man out.
Mr Trafford said of X: “He then just wandered off, as if nothing had happened.”
Mr Bogdancevs was said to have tried to stand, grabbed at the air then collapsed. The first aider said she heard a ‘gurgling noise’. “That gurgling was almost certainly blood,” the prosecutor said.
The victim was placed in the recovery position and the police called.
He was later taken by ambulance to the John Radcliffe Hospital, when scans showed he had sustained six stab wounds. The wounds were between 2cm and around 5cm deep, jurors heard.
The man’s friend ran after the attacking group, who were said to have retreated down an alleyway. Mr Trafford said: “‘Why did you stab him?’ he asked. They immediately denied being there or being involved then quite untruthfully said to him ‘we’re not even from around here’.”
All three boys were said to have been arrested the day after the stabbing. Boy X gave a prepared statement denying possession or knowledge of a knife but accepted he had been involved in an ‘altercation’ in the park.
Boy Y accepted being at the park but denied being involved in the attack on Mr Bogdancevs.
He told officers that shortly after the arrival of a third boy, Z, when the fight had began he heard someone say ‘cut, cut’ and ‘almost immediately’ Z ran away.
Boy Z maintained his right to silence in his police interview, the jury was told.
Mr Trafford played a CCTV clip allegedly showing the disposal of Z’s jacket behind a vet surgery near the park. Mr Bogdancevs’s blood was said to have been found on the coat.
All three boys deny attempted murder and wounding with intent. The trial, which is expected to last up to a month, continues.
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