A teenager has admitted murdering a Birmingham schoolboy aged 12 as he walked home.

Leo Ross was fatally stabbed in the stomach at The Shire Country Park in Hall Green while walking home from school on January 21 last year.

A 14-year-old boy was arrested and charged with murder.

Today, Thursday, January 29, he admitted to murder. The teenager has since turned 15 but cannot be named for legal reasons.

Leo had attended Christ Church C of E Secondary Academy in Yardley Wood.

Following his death, Diane Henson, executive headteacher, paid tribute to him, saying: “Leo was a lively and happy young man.

“He had many very good friends who he absolutely adored, and they adored him.

“He was just a lovely and bright member of the school community.”

Subsequent police inquiries established that the knife used to kill him was thrown into a nearby river, while the youth responsible, riding a bike, had previously hunted down and attacked several women in local parkland.

An inquiry by West Midlands Police also found that the killer opted to hang around to talk to officers at the murder scene, falsely claiming he had stumbled across Leo lying fatally injured beside the River Cole.

It also emerged that Leo had no connection with his attacker and was subjected to what senior officers believe was a completely random and unprovoked stabbing.

The defendant’s guilty pleas were entered more than six months after a trial was postponed to allow psychiatric experts to assess the defendant, who cannot be identified due to his age.

Judge Paul Farrer KC said sentencing would be set for February 10 and would likely last the full day.

He told the defendant: “I can’t sentence you today for a number of reasons. You will be sentenced on the 10th of February and you will be brought from wherever you are being kept to Birmingham where you can speak to your lawyers.

“In the meantime you are remanded into youth detention.”

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