A 15-year-old accused of a knife murder bragged that he would rob a grebo of his drugs then stab him in the throat, a court heard today (Thursday). The youth - who cannot be named for legal reasons - made the chilling statement less than an hour before

A 15-year-old accused of a knife murder bragged that he would rob a "grebo" of his drugs then stab him in the throat, a court heard today (Thursday).

The youth - who cannot be named for legal reasons - made the chilling statement less than an hour before he fatally stabbed Chris Faulkner, the jury was told.

Chris, 20, died from a single stab wound to the chest at the King George V playing fields in Stevenage as the youth, who is now 16, and Sahan Yeter, 18, robbed him of cannabis.

Prosecutor Ann Evans told St Albans Crown Court: "For those of you who don't know, a grebo boy is the type of boy who is into skateboarding and wears baggy jeans. The youth said the Grebo boy had drugs and he was going to rob him for his drugs. He also told a girl he was going to stick a knife to his throat. Another girl said she remembers the boy saying that if they didn't get the weed off Chris they were going to 'shank him'." She explained that shank was a slang word for knife.

She added: "Armed with a knife, when the 16-year-old met some resistance from Christopher Faulkner, he stabbed him. The wound pierced his aorta and he bled to death in the park within moments."

The jury was told the 16-year-old and Yeter, of Jessop Road, Stevenage deny murder on April 21. But they and two other youths, another 15-year-old who is now 16, and James Treble, 18, of Stafford Street, Norwich have all admitted conspiracy to rob.

The prosecutor told the jury that the four youths had met earlier that day at the fountain in Stevenage town centre. There the youth accused of the murder and Treble talked about owing money to a man called Joe. This was clearly a drug debt, she said.

She said: "James Treble said he knew a boy who had some cannabis, and they could just take it off him - in other words rob him."

She said Treble rang Chris Faulkner who told him he could drop off the cannabis between 6 and 6.30 that night. Treble left the group saying he was going to see his girlfriend.

After seeing the group of girls outside the Londis shop in Whitesmead Road, Stevenage the other three went to the home of the 15-year-old who has admitted robbery. A phone call was made to Chris by the youth accused of murder at 18.39 and they agreed to meet in King George V Park in 15 minutes.

The prosecution say the killer went to his own home and armed himself with a kitchen knife before he and Yeter went to the park.

Chris, of Brook Drive, Stevenage was described as a "low-level cannabis dealer". On the evening of his death he dropped his girlfriend Vanessa off at work at Asda in Stevenage and collected cannabis from a friend's house.

In the park a teenage boy who had just finished playing tennis saw the two defendants talking to Chris, who was heard to say: "These boys think they're hard by trying to nick my money and my drugs, my weed."

He said he saw Chris push the teenager who said: "I've got a shank. I'm really serious."

A man called Michele Keston allegedly saw them pushing each other. The next thing he recalled was Chris calling: "Mister, can you call an ambulance, mate, I've been stabbed."

In police interviews the 16-year-old said that he had been grabbed by Chris and had put his hand down his trousers and swung at him thinking he was having a normal fight. He said he had brought a weapon with him just in case to assure himself he wasn't going to get battered.

Yeter said he had just gone to the park to buy drugs. He agreed with the police that he had been handed the drugs by the 16-year-old and said he had walked off as Chris tried to stop him.

The prosecutor said Yeter is a secondary party and would be guilty of murder if the jury found he had "participated in a joint venture".

The trial continues.