Two boys murdered in a ‘revenge attack’ by four other teenagers and a man wielding ‘fearsome weapons’ were completely innocent victims of mistaken identity, a court has heard.
Max Dixon, 16, and Mason Rist, 15, were stabbed in the Knowle West area of Bristol on the evening of January 27 this year after unwittingly stumbling into the middle of a ‘postcode rivalry’, it was said.
Barely half an hour before they were ambushed, a house in the Hartcliffe area of the city was attacked with bricks, leaving a woman inside at the time injured.
Antony Snook, 45, Riley Tolliver, 18, and three teenage boys aged 15, 16, and 17, who cannot be named due to their age, are said to have ‘tooled themselves up’ and headed out for vengeance.
They each deny two counts of murder.
Prosecutor Ray Tully KC told jurors there has been a ‘rivalry’ between Knowle West and Hartcliffe for years and there have previously been incidents involving people from ‘both postcodes’.
He added: ‘It seems that the origins of this case can be traced back to those kinds of issues.’
Three young men carrying machetes were captured on CCTV outside a house in Hartcliffe just after 10pm on January 27 and threw bricks at the property – breaking a large number of windows and injuring a woman, the court heard.
Jurors heard Max called round to Mason’s home address and two of them had met up at around 11pm.
At roughly the same time, Snook, Tolliver and the three teenage boys allegedly left the Hartcliffe area in Snook’s car.
‘They were all tooled up, they had some pretty fearsome weapons,’ Mr Tully said.
‘The five occupants of the car drove from Hartcliffe to Knowle West. As they set off, we say, they were on the hunt for the people they thought were responsible for the attack on the house.
‘They set off together, they were on a joint mission, and we say that was for revenge.
‘As they drove past Max and Mason walking down the street, they thought they had spotted the people responsible for the earlier attack – or at the very least, people connected to it.
‘They were entirely wrong about that. Max and Mason had absolutely nothing to do with any earlier incident and no connection whatsoever with those events.’
The court was shown two machetes which Mr Tully said had been recovered following the fatal attacks.
CCTV images played to the court showed the Audi vehicle stopping alongside Max and Mason at 11.14pm, with four people jumping out of the vehicle and the boys running away almost immediately.
Max and Mason are seen going to different sides of the street, each pursued by two people from the vehicle.
Tolliver and the 15-year-old boy are alleged to have attacked Mason, while the 16-year-old boy and 17-year-old boy are said to have chased Max.
The 17-year-old boy also struck Mason, who was lying injured on the ground, as he headed back to the Audi after attacking Max, Mr Tully said.
Max and Mason both sustained stab wounds and died from their injuries.
Mr Tully said the five defendants were ‘in it together’ and their joint attack resulted in both boys dying, which was ‘hardly surprising’ given the type of weapons used.
He added: ‘Antony Snook could and would not have been in any doubt about what these four youngsters were intending to do as he drove them round the streets of south Bristol for nearly 15 minutes hunting for their victims.
‘Without his willingness, as an adult, to provide a car and drive these four young people around south Bristol tooled up, out looking to attack those that they thought were responsible for the attack on the house, these two killings wouldn’t ever have happened.’
Snook, Tolliver, the 16-year-old boy and the 17-year-old boy are charged with murdering Mason together with the 15-year-old boy on January 27 this year.
Snook, Tolliver and the three teenage boys are charged with murdering Max on the same date.
The jury of nine men and three women have been told the trial is due to last until the end of November.
Mr Tully is due to continue opening the prosecution’s case on Thursday.
The trial continues.
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