Teenager handed 10 year custodial sentence for manslaughter of Leamington boy.

The 17-year-old youth, from the Lewisham area of London, was found guilty last week of the manslaughter of Nasir Patrice, also 17.

Jurors cleared the boy of murder but convicted him of perverting the course of justice and wounding a second victim, who suffered a collapsed lung and spent five days in hospital.

Passing sentence at Warwick Crown Court on Tuesday, Mr Justice Turner accepted the youth had not struck the first blow when intruders linked to a Birmingham-based gang stormed a flat containing cash, drugs including heroin, and the "fearsome'' sword.

The judge told the defendant, who was 16 at the time of the offences: "At least one of them (the intruders) had a knife.

"What followed went far beyond the bounds of reasonable self-defence. I am sure that very soon after the intruders entered the flat you very quickly took the initiative and set about the victims with relentless and grossly disproportionate violence.

"The third intruder was fortunate enough to avoid injury.''

Ruling that the boy had a very considerable degree of criminal maturity and had wasted little time in disposing of evidence, including his clothing, the judge said of Nasir Patrice:

"It is shocking that someone so young should lose his life in such circumstances.''

The boy, described by the judge as articulate, claimed to have acted in self-defence during the stabbings on the morning of January 15 last year. He can't be named due to legal reasons.

He told his trial he was attacked by a group of three assailants who had "stampeded'' into the flat, before taking a split-second life or death decision to jab out with a knife.

Nasir Patrice, from Birmingham, suffered four stab wounds and was pronounced dead nearby despite the best efforts of medical staff.

The three-week trial heard an air ambulance called to the scene of the stabbings arrived at 11.10am, but Nasir Patrice was declared dead at 11.23am.

Three other members of the London-based county lines "syndicate'' pleaded guilty before the trial to doing acts intended to pervert the course of justice.

The court heard Richard Talawila, 19, from Harrow, and William Hutsch, 18, from the Blackheath area of Greenwich, set fire to bin bags containing clothing at a cemetery in Worcestershire following Nasir's death.

Abraham Kombey, 19, from Erith, London, was said to have played a more limited role in efforts to frustrate the police inquiry.

All three co-defendants were given two-year sentences, meaning they are likely to be released immediately due to time served on remand.

The youth convicted of Nasir's manslaughter was told he must serve half of his ten-year term of youth detention before he is likely to be freed.

The court was told the youth has previous convictions for threatening someone with and possession of an offensive weapon.

• leamington
• warwickshire police
• county lines