Teen found guilty of schoolboy killing

A 16-year-old teenager was found guilty on Friday of the murder of schoolboy Martin Dinnegan, stabbed to death near his home in north London last year, police said.

Dinnegan, aged 14, died outside a chip shop a few hundred yards from his Holloway home last June.

His mother Lorraine had said her son had been killed after looking "the wrong way" at a gang of up to 20 youths.

Police said Dinnegan was chased, punched to the ground, kicked, stabbed four times in the back and left to die in the street.

They said the violence erupted after Dinnegan exchanged "dirty looks" with a group riding bikes while travelling home by bus.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named, had denied murder but was found guilty by a jury after a two-month trial at the Old Bailey. Sentencing was postponed to August 8.

A 17-year-old, who also cannot be named, was found guilty of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm but was cleared of murder and manslaughter.

Two other suspects, Rene John-Baptiste and Sean Clark, both 21, were found not guilty of Dinnegan's murder.

The verdicts came as Scotland Yard denied the capital was in the grip of a knife epidemic after four people were stabbed to death in a 24-hour period.

More than 50 people, including 20 teenagers, have been murdered in London this year.