Teen guilty of stabbing schoolboy to death on New Year’s Eve fireworks display in Primrose Hill

A teenager has been found guilty of stabbing a schoolboy to death as he watched fireworks on Primrose Hill to see in the New Year with friends.

Areece Lloyd-Hall, 18, has been found guilty at the Old Bailey of the murder of 16-year-old Harry Pitman on Wednesday.

Harry was ‘in good spirits’ with a group of friends watching fireworks where when he lost his balance playfighting, showing how high he could kick, and bumped into a boy standing behind.

Lloyd-Hall pushed forward and lunged at Harry with a pointed dagger, meters from where uniformed police officers were stationed.

Harry can be seen swinging a punch before Lloyd-Hall swings the knife upwards in an arc and down onto Harry’s neck.

In ‘shocking’ mobile phone footage played in court, a knife sheath is seen to fly through the air.

Harry holds his neck, his white T-shirt covered in blood, as he pushes through crowds calling to officers for ‘help’.

He collapsed and died minutes later, shortly before midnight.

College student Lloyd-Hall, who was 16 at the time, claimed he thought he had only hit Harry with the sheath in an attempt to get Harry away from him.

He said: ‘I did not want him to lose his life.

‘I feel horrible for what I caused. It was not my intention.’

He said he ran off not realising what had happened because he was holding a knife and knew there were police officers nearby.

Harry’s grandad Philip Woolveridge, who works as a caretaker at his old school, told Metro: ‘It’s so difficult for us this time of year what with the second anniversary coming up. He was a wonderful boy that’s the truth. We miss him so much.’

Mr Woolveridge previously said his grandson, who was 6ft 3, ‘didn’t have a bad bone in his body’.

Harry, who lived in Tottenham, has four siblings and a close-knit family.

They said after his death he was a person who ‘always stood up for what was right’. 

After Harry bumped into the boy behind he was shoved and slapped on the back of the head, causing him to say: ‘Don’t touch me, because I didn’t touch you.’

Lloyd-Hall pushed his way towards Harry, holding his trousers and saying: ‘Wot wot wot wot wot.’

In mobile phone footage, a girl warns ‘mindi’, the Somalian word for knife, as the defendant produces a blade from his waistband.

Police body-worn camera footage shows Harry moving through the crowd seeking help before he collapsed.

The defendant made off, discarding the knife, his clothes and mobile phone.

The knife scabbard was left at the scene and was found to have the defendant’s DNA on it.

After a media appeal, Lloyd-Hall went to Hammersmith police station with his father on January 4 2024.

The court was told the defendant had no previous convictions and had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.