Man guilty of killing teenager and wounding boy

A man has been found guilty of killing a teenager but cleared of his murder.

Jamie Meah, 18, was stabbed to death and a 16-year-old boy was seriously injured when they were dragged out of a taxi by a gang of men in Armley, Leeds, in March 2023.

Ranei Wilks, 23, of no fixed abode, had denied murder and attempted murder during a trial at Leeds Crown Court this week.

He was cleared by the jury on a majority verdict of both charges, but was found guilty of manslaughter and wounding with intent to cause GBH and is due to be sentenced on 3 February.

During the trial, the prosecution had said Mr Meah had been targeted by members of a rival drugs gang.

They said on the day of his death, Mr Meah and the 16-year-old had taken a taxi to various locations in Leeds, before arriving at Hall Lane in Armley, at its junction with Brooklyn Terrace, late in the afternoon.

It is said the younger teenager had got out of the car before recognising a group in a parked Mercedes and then running back to the taxi.

Three people got out of the Mercedes and dragged the teenagers out of the taxi and subjected them to a "vicious, sustained, barbaric and brutal assault" as they were stabbed, kicked and punched, prosecutors said.

One of the suspects is alleged to have carried a "long knife", described by the taxi driver as a sword.

Mr Meah sought help at a nearby house, but lost consciousness before paramedics arrived and was pronounced dead in hospital.

It was said four suspects had fled the UK the day after the attacks and Wilks was arrested on his return to the country in April 2024 after flying back from Turkey.

The other three men - Caleb Awe, Aquade Jeffers and Enham Nishat - remain at large.

In his evidence, Wilks said he was in a car "chilling" with three other men but when they saw someone with a knife, the others jumped out.

He said they were in the vehicle together as the other men were selling drugs and that he stayed in the Mercedes because he thought he could be seriously hurt, but could not see what was happening.

He also denied being the man with the knife who banged on the taxi windows and stabbed Jamie Meah, and insisted he had "no involvement in the assault or stabbing of the males".

When prosecutors put it to him that he was the man described as carrying the knife by the driver, Wilks said the taxi driver who witnessed the incident must have been "confused".

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.