A 15-year-old boy has been found guilty of the murder of teenager Alfie Lewis in Leeds last year.
Alfie, 15, was stabbed to death in front of pupils leaving a primary school in the Horsforth area of Leeds last November.
The teenager - who cannot be named - admitted to stabbing Alfie with a knife he had brought from home, but denied murder and claimed he was scared he was about to be attacked when he pulled out the knife.
When the verdict was announced, sobs could be heard from Alfie's family in the pubic gallery at Leeds Crown Court. Most of them were wearing T-shirts with pictures of him and the words "Forever 15" on them.
The defendant showed no visible emotion. Before being taken away, he held hands with his parents through a gap in the dock glass.
He will be sentenced on Tuesday 21 June.
Judge Mr Justice Cotter told him: "You have been found guilty of murder. There is only one sentence I can pass. What I have to determine is how many years you will be detained before you are able to be released."
Giving his closing speech on Wednesday, prosecutor Craig Hassall KC said all the witnesses who saw the stabbing were "consistent".
He added: "None of them suggest that Alfie was in any way the aggressor, none of them suggest it was Alfie that attacked [the defendant].
"None of the witnesses heard Alfie shouting at or threatening [the defendant]. Not even [the defendant] says Alfie shouted at or threatened him."
Mr Hassall said some witnesses "describe Alfie trying in vain to defend himself from [the defendant's] knife".
Jurors heard Alfie had been walking down the street to meet friends at the end of the school day when the defendant, who was 14 at the time, attacked him with a 13cm-long kitchen knife.
Mr Hassall said: "Alfie did not get as far as meeting any of his friends that day."
Alfie was stabbed twice, once in the chest and once in the leg, in the "full view of scores of pupils leaving school and the people who were waiting to collect them," he added.
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Tap hereA post-mortem found the fatal injury was a 14cm-deep wound that punctured Alfie's heart.
The teenager fled the scene and dropped the murder weapon in the road close to the school, the prosecution said.
The defendant told the court he was scared of Alfie following two incidents in the months before.
He claimed that at the second, on Halloween, he was walking past Alfie's house with fireworks when the 15-year-old said: "Give me the bag or something worse than last time is going to happen."
The defendant said he decided to take the knife to protect himself when he returned to school after the half-term break.
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