A HIGHGATE schoolboy was stabbed to death just an hour after exchanging dirty looks with a gang of yobs, a court has heard. Martin Dinnegan, a St Aloysius College pupil, was knifed in the back near his home in Holloway on June 26 last year after being c

A HIGHGATE schoolboy was stabbed to death just an hour after exchanging "dirty looks" with a gang of yobs, a court has heard.

Martin Dinnegan, a St Aloysius College pupil, was knifed in the back near his home in Holloway on June 26 last year after being chased by a group of teenagers.

The murder trial, which opened at the Old Bailey last Thursday, heard that Martin, 14, and his friends had clashed with another group of youngsters .

The court heard Martin was running for his life and begging for help before he was cornered and subjected to a brutal mob attack.

Witness Thomas Morgan saw Martin pinned down by one of the gang. "He was leaning all of his weight, holding on to his shoulder and upper arm pressing him to the floor," he said.

"I think he might have had a knee on his back as well. I saw what seemed to be a stabbing motion, rather than a punching motion.

"It was four or five in very quick succession. It seemed to be somewhere from the upper thigh to the lower back."

Another witness, Jeremy Wright, saw Martin collapse to the ground after being beaten. He told the court: "Martin turned round, I saw his jaw drop, his face became ashen and then he fell to the floor."

Martin died at about 8.40pm on the corner of Axminster Road and Tollington Way, not far from his home in Evershot Street, Finsbury Park.

Jurors heard Martin and a group of friends had exchanged dirty looks with another group of youths just an hour earlier while travelling along Holloway Road on a 271 bus.

Martin and his friends were followed to Whittington Park, where the two groups clashed. It was claimed one of the defendants tried to stab Martin's friend with a screw driver. They squared up to each other just minutes later in a nearby housing estate, where another 16-year-old defendant was left with two cuts on his arm and shoulder.

In his opening statement, prosecutor Aftab Jaferjee said the attack highlighted the "growing scourge of urban posturing" among youths in Britain.

Rene John-Baptiste, of Khartoum Road in Plaistow, Sean Clark, of Bennett Court, Axminster Road, and two youths aged 16 and 17 deny murder. The trial continues.