Teenagers not guilty of murdering 15-year-old boy in Glasgow sword stabbing

Two teenagers have been found not guilty of murdering a 15-year-old boy, who was stabbed with a sword.

Amen Teklay was found seriously injured on Clarendon Street in Glasgow's Maryhill on the evening of 5 March 2025 and died at the scene.

Two boys aged 16 and 17, who cannot be named due to their age, went on trial at the city's high court accused of Amen's murder.

Prosecutors alleged the teenagers, with their faces masked, assaulted Amen and brandished a frying pan and a sword or similar instrument at him in Glenfarg Street and Clarendon Street.

The murder charge said that Amen was struck on the body with the sword, leaving him so severely injured that he died.

The teenage defendants denied murder, with the younger of the two lodging a special defence of self-defence.

The 16-year-old had accepted that he stabbed Amen and the jury was asked to decide if he acted in self-defence or if he may have been provoked.

Jurors were also asked to consider whether the second accused, who is 17, acted in concert with the first.

The defence KC for the 17-year-old said he believed "he had done nothing wrong".

Lawyer Iain McSporran KC said the boy "did not lay a finger on Amen Teklay".

He said that on the day of the incident, Amen had "gone out of his way" to find the first accused, and had been armed with a weapon described as a "cutlass" or a "pirate sword".

The 17-year-old had not participated in the violence that followed, Mr McSporran said.

On Monday, jurors returned a verdict of not guilty for both teenagers on their second day of deliberations.

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Amen, who was an Eritrean refugee, was a pupil at St Thomas Aquinas Secondary in the city.

He was a bright pupil with an interest in music and media, his headteacher Claire McInally said at the time of his death.

(c) Sky News 2026: Teenagers not guilty of murdering 15-year-old boy in Glasgow sword stabbing