Jury told 14-year-old had criminal convictions for assault

Prosecution outlines agreed facts at murder trial

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A warning that this story contains information which some readers may find distressing.

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A 14-year-old boy who died in Ramsey last year had been convicted of assault a year before his death.

Christopher McBurnie, who was from Castletown, was stabbed on 29 May 2025.

A 15-year-old boy, who can’t be named for legal reasons, is currently on trial at Douglas Courthouse accused of his murder.

This week the 12 jurors were read a number of agreed facts by a prosecutor in the case.

These are statements which record material facts which both the prosecution and defence accept as true.

ABH

The prosecutor told the court Christopher was convicted of the offence of assault causing actual bodily harm on 15 March 2024.

He’d punched a 13-year-old boy in the head 40 times, kneed the boy in the face and elbowed him in the back of the head.

The video footage was played to the jury which showed the incident taking place in a corridor at Castle Rushen High School.

The assault, which only stopped due to the arrival of a member of staff, was partly filmed on a mobile phone and later sent to Christopher’s device.

Common Assault

On 20 May 2024 Christopher was convicted of common assault.

It followed a confrontation between the victim and Christopher and his friend on the secondary school's playing field.

Video footage, which captured the incident and which was sent to Christopher’s device, was again played to the jury.

Christopher can be seen punching the child to the right side of the head; the victim runs away and is chased by both boys before he is kicked and falls to the ground.

The prosecutor told the court Christopher had confronted the victim again later the same day and punched him several times.

Changing Room and Corridor

Two other videos were also played in court.

In one Christopher is seen approaching a child in the changing rooms at the school as the boy is getting dressed into his school uniform.

He calls him a ‘f***ing c***’ and a ‘d******d’ and punches him; the boy's head bangs off the wall.

In another video, filmed in a school corridor, Christopher is seen punching a child as he’s hunched over a radiator.

The child can be heard repeating: “Chris mate, I’m sorry. It wasn’t me.”

‘Animated’

As part of the agreed facts the prosecutor also read the jury a statement from a passenger who was on the bus which Christopher took on 29 May 2025 to Ramsey.

The witness said he could overhear the conversation between Christopher and the friend he was travelling with.

“They were being really loud and punching the back of the seat in front,” he told the police adding: “The boys were getting quite animated.”

The witness said Christopher was ‘more animated’ than his friend and was the ‘most vocal’ of the teenagers.

He told officers he’d overheard him say: “I hope I don’t rip this jacket because I’ve only just bought it, but I thought it would look good on the video.”

Video

Jurors have previously been shown mobile phone footage which shows the aftermath of the incident which claimed the life of the 14-year-old boy.

The teenager who recorded it told officers he’d shown it to others after Christopher’s death but then deleted it.

This week the prosecutor told the court that the boy’s mobile phone had been examined and the video he’d taken had been analysed.

Officers found he started recording at 3.24pm on 29 May 2025 and deleted the file at 4.40pm.

There had been no manipulation or editing of the video meaning the footage recovered was ‘entire’.  

Doorbell

The prosecutor also confirmed that all of the imagery from the Ring doorbell at the property in Ramsey, relevant to the case, had been shown in court.

She said the defendant’s lawyers had carried out ‘extensive investigations’ on the doorbell and no other data from it could be located.

The Trial

The juvenile defendant denies the charge of murder.

The trial is due to continue on 19 October.