Teenager, 18, denies stabbing 14-year-old boy in the heart at Glasgow train station

A teenager stabbed a schoolboy to death at a railway station, a court heard.

Daniel Haig, 18, went on trial accused of murdering Justin McLaughlin, 14, on October 16, 2021.

It is said he pursued Justin at Glasgow’s High Street railway station, brandished a knife before striking the boy with it.

Haig denies murder.

The case began on Friday with advocate depute Steven Borthwick KC reading to jurors a joint minute of facts agreed between prosecutors and Haig’s legal team led by defence KC John Scullion.

Mr Borthwick stated Haig struck a “a single blow” to Justin’s body with a knife resulting in the teenager suffering a fatal injury.

The jury was also told of attempts by emergency crews to try and save Justin at the station before he was transferred to the city’s Royal Hospital for Children.

The boy did not recover and he was pronounced dead that evening.

A post-mortem later concluded that Justin passed away as a result of a “stab wound to the heart”.

He had a superficial wound to the tip of his finger which could have potentially been a “defensive” style injury.

The court went on to hear a police interview with a 17-year-old boy who met Haig that day.

They had agreed to meet to swap jogging bottoms and ended up at High Street station that afternoon.

The boy knew Haig, but they were not close.

The witness was planning on getting a train to meet a friend.

It was there Haig then stated to him: “All of them are running at us.”

The 17-year-old recalled a group coming down stairs and he “panicked”.

He said Haig went into a bag he had with him.

The witness told police: “I tried my best…[I said] do not do anything stupid.”

He claimed Haig ran at them as the 17-year-old tried to stop him.

Justin was said to be part of the group and that he and Haig “ended up fighting and scuffling”.

He tried to break it up, but stated Haig was “bigger and stronger” than him.

The boy said Haig, at one stage, went on to the train track to retrieve a knife that he apparently dropped.

He told the detectives: “I was shouting and screaming at him: ‘Do not do anything stupid’.”

Haig was said to have run back and the witness recalled one of the group eventually “falling” but did not realise it was Justin until he later learned on social media.

The 17-year-old remembered “hyperventilating” that day adding: “I could not really breathe properly.”

He went to a friend’s house in the east end of the city and sat on stairs “crying for hours and hours”.

The trial, before judge Lord Clark, continues.