A man accused of stabbing a 12-year-old boy on a bouncy castle during his little sister's birthday party says the case against him was "complete nonsense".
Mason Clague, 22, denies stabbing the youngster who was chased into his nan's back garden, in Southport Road, Bootle, on April 7 2021. The boy suffered four stab wounds to his leg and buttock during the attack, and needed stitches.
Taking the stand at Liverpool Crown Court today, Clague said: "It's complete nonsense… I've never carried a knife leaving the house in my whole, entire life. It would be crazy to even think of attacking a kid on a bouncy castle using a knife."
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The prosecution alleges that Clague, along with another man who has not been identified, chased the 12-year-old boy and his 14-year-old friend after the pair threw stones near him as he crossed Southport Road.
They allege that the pair ran into the garden, where the party was going on, and the boy was thrown onto the steps of the bouncy castle and "punched, kicked and kneed" by Clague. The second male then stabbed the boy multiple times in an attack defence barrister Anthony Barraclough said was consistent with "bagging" – a gangland practice in which a victim is knifed in the buttocks.
But Clague, of Southport Road, told the jury he was at home with his mother's partner when the stabbing took place – and instead blamed the attack on two drug dealers whom he had purchased cannabis from minutes earlier.
The defence claims Clague had arranged via Snapchat for the drugs to be delivered to his house that day. After picking up 50g of cannabis from the pair on his doorstep, he went back inside but heard "a commotion" and looked out of his upstairs window.
He allegedly went back downstairs and into his front garden, where he saw the two drug dealers chasing the two boys down the street. He then placed a nine-second WhatsApp call to his mum's partner, he said, to let him back into the house as the door had automatically locked behind him.
When armed police knocked on his door a short time later, he did not answer "because (he) just picked up a load of weed".
He said: "I didn't leave the proximity of my house the whole time, or go anywhere near the house where the kid got stabbed the whole day."
Charlotte Atherton, prosecuting, said Clague had not offered police any information when he was arrested on April 8 2021 and gave a "no comment" interview, which Clague said was done on the advice of a solicitor. It was only after he was charged in December 2022 that he submitted his version of events.
She said three women who had identified Clague as one of the attackers – including the victim's mum and a former schoolmate – had "no reason" to lie.
But Clague said the witnesses were "mistaken", adding: "I have lived in that house for 22 years. I know for a fact they have just seen the two lads run from the direction of my house and they are trying to pin it on me."
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