Articles: Knife Cover Story

THE two surviving boys, currently being treated at St. Mary’s Hospital, Newport, who’s names cannot be released due to their age, were walking with a third boy back to their homes in Shanklin from Sandown Pier at around 6pm, last Friday. They were walking along the beaches up until the slipway, entering Small Hope Beach, when they were confronted by six youths who have been identified as Steven Haines, 19, and Ben Warding, 18, (both from Sandown), Michael Stock, 19, (from Newport), Kyle Reiss, 17, (from Shanklin), and Chris Ladening, 21, and Daryl Thomas, 18, (both from Ryde).

The six, dressed in tracksuits and foodies, surrounded the boys - shoving them and provoking them to give up their phones and wallets. The three boys retaliated by trying to work their way out of the group’s circle and push past to free themselves - one of the boys managed to duck past one of them and run, which startled the others as the two remaining boys broke free also, turning the situation into a game of cat and mouse on the shore. Michael Stock, 19, and Kyle Reiss, 17, admitted to focusing on one of the boysand managed to catch up to him, pinning him to the ground as the other two boys fled to draw attention and help. As Stock and Reiss pulled the remaining boy to his feet, he swung at Reiss with a large rock he had picked whilst being pinned now, striking him in the side of the head. As Reiss fell to the floor unconscious, Stock retaliated by pulling a switchblade from his jacket and stabbing the boy a total of five times in the chest and abdominal region.

When police and medics arrived at the scene, Stock was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital with minor head wounds, however the boy was tragically D.O.A. The six youths are awaiting sentencing, due in court this Wednesday.

Small Hope Beach is closed whilst police continue to investigate the scenes, though flowers have been left at the beach huts.