Murder accused were engaged in 'childish escapade'

Three teenagers accused of murdering a man who tried to meet a 16-year-old girl were engaged in a "childish escapade that got out of hand", a court has heard.

Alexander Cashford, 49, died in Leysdown-on-Sea, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, on 10 August, last year, after being accused of paedophilia.

Prosecutors have told Woolwich Crown Court Cashford was chased and hit with rocks and a bottle, before he was found lying face down in mud.

A 16-year-old girl and two boys, aged 15 and 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons, all deny murder. The 16-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to manslaughter, which the girl and 15-year-old boy deny.

Jurors previously heard Cashford had given the girl his number on 8 August, after meeting her at an amusement arcade, and that he also handed her a business card with a name on which was not his.

Using the alias Sienna, the three messaged Cashford and arranged to meet him by the sea wall.

Danny Robinson KC, defending the girl, told the court the texts started as a "big laugh" but may have become a wish to name-and-shame Cashford.

He said: "You can just imagine, can't you, a group of bored teenagers messing around, contacting Mr Cashford, texting without much of a plan."

The 16-year-old boy told the court before the attack they discussed giving Cashford "a slap", Robinson said.

The younger boy and the girl have said they were not aware of such a plan, jurors heard.

Robinson asked: "Could you be sure from that, the plan was to kill Mr Cashford or cause him real harm?"

The attack, he said, was not the result of an "organised plan to kill or cause anyone really serious harm, it was a childish escapade that got out of hand very quickly with tragic consequences".

He told jurors the girl did not hit Cashford, but the court heard she shouted "get him" during the attack.

Footage played previously showed the 16-year-old boy striking Cashford on the back of the head with a bottle before trying to hit him with it again.

He accepted wanting to use it to hurt Cashford but said he did not believe it would cause "serious injury".

"I'm not really sure what was going through my head," he said in evidence.

Benjamin Newton KC, for the 15-year-old, who was 14 at the time, said the boy could not be seen trying to hit Cashford in video footage.

He could though be seen falling over, the court heard.

Newton dubbed the prosecution's case "a house of straw".

The trial continues.

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