Trial continues into Joshua Ingram death in Seaford

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has admitted killing Joshua Ingram, also 16, in broad daylight at Seaford train station on September 10, 2025.

A jury in Hove was told he admits killing Joshua with a 19cm blade but denies murder.

"I’m ready to sit in a prison cell for 30 years over a £20 sheet,” the boy was said to have told his friends, in an opening speech by Rossano Scarmadella, KC for the Crown.

He told a jury in Hove: “Joshua Ingram was murdered in cold blood and the cowardly attack on him had been planned for weeks.”

Distressing CCTV footage from the train station shown to the jury captured the fatal blows at 4.55pm on September 10.

Clips show the boy walking to the station with his girlfriend before he leaves her and jogs after Joshua Ingram and his friend into Seaford station.

The camera on platform 2 captured the moment Joshua was stabbed twice in the chest before stumbling and collapsing to the ground.

He is seen lifting his jacket and shirt to reveal the stab wounds.

“The incident was over in a flash, but the attack was anything but spontaneous,” Mr Scarmadella told the jury.

“‘Josh will perish if I don’t get my money’.

“Those were the words of the boy three months before he stabbed and killed Joshua Ingram in broad daylight at Seaford train station.

“In the weeks leading up to Joshua’s death the boy and his two friends plotted and planned the attack.

“They discussed where Joshua lived, how and where to attack him, and what to use to do so.

“All of this over a £20 cannabis debt,” Mr Scarmadella said.

The boy was described as a small-time dealer who supplied drugs to Joshua Ingram in early summer 2025.

“By June of last year, he could not hide his anger about the unpaid debt and he began posting about it on a snapchat group,” Mr Scarmadellla said.

“This f****** Josh guy owes me a £20 sheet the f****t,” the boy wrote in the group he shared with his two co-defendants.

“Let’s ride out,” one of the boys responded.

‘Ride out’ is street slang term for confronting someone with violence, Mr Scarmadella said.

“By August 2025, the debt was still not paid and the boy decided that enough was enough and he was going to do something about it,” Mr Scarmadella said.

“He used phrases such as ‘poke’, ‘wet’ and 'dip’ when discussing the planned attack on Joshua, all street slang for stabbing,” he said.

"Such was the sharpness of the blade, and the force used, the knife tracked through his coat and clothing and entered his body on the lower front right side of his chest. It passed upwards through his diaphragm and into and through the right ventricle of his heart. 

“The blade travelled 15cm into his body.

“Joshua stood no chance,” Mr Scarmadell told the jury.

Members of the public and paramedics battled to save his life on the station platform as they waited for the air ambulance.

“The treatment had started over an hour before and there had been no discernible change to his physiology, a decision was made to stop all efforts at resuscitation and Joshua Ingram was pronounced dead at 6.12pm,” Mr Scarmadella said.

When police arrived at his home to arrest him, the boy said: “Is he alive?”

Mr Scarmadell said: “It is obvious that he knew just how serious the incident was, he must have known that the blade went deep into Joshua’s body, after all he was holding the handle.”

Before the arrest, he entrusted his two friends to dispose of the bag and its contents and that they agreed to do it, Mr Scarmadella said.

The knife and some clothing was given to the other boys in a JD Sports bag.

Mr Scarmadella added: “Later that same day, the other boys met and took the bag which contained the knife with them as they walked through Seaford.”

He showed the knife used to kill Joshua to the jury.

“Whilst en route to dispose of the murder weapon they were stopped by the police and taken to Seaford Police Station.

“There they handed the bag to officers and told them they knew the bag contained the weapon used to stab Joshua Ingram,” Mr Scarmadella told the jury.

The other two boys deliberately tried to hamper the police investigation, he said.

“Both wiped their phones prior to their arrest.

“These deliberately obstructive actions denied police the chance to see what was there,” he said.

“These two boys had no interest in that investigation; their interests were selfish ones,” Mr Scarmadella said.

The defendants are now aged 15, 16 and 17.

Mr Justice Charles Bourne KC explained the age of the defendants means none of the lawyers will be wearing wigs or gowns during the trail.

The 16-year-old boy denies murder.

One of the other boys denies assisting an offender.

All three boys deny conspiracy to commit GBH with intent.

The trial at Lewes Crown Court in Hove continues.