Update: All five defendants guilty of perverting the course of justice

Thursday 24 March 2016

All five defendants have been found guilty of perverting the course of justice by Jersey's Youth Court over the death of 16-year-old Morgan Huelin.

After five days of evidence last week, including testimony from passers-by, a police officer and a paramedic, as well as two of the young defendants, the Youth Court took two days to consider its verdict, which has just been delivered.

The five teenagers – who cannot be named because of their age – all denied the charge.

One of the boys has also been convicted of possessing LSD and Ecstasy at the house where Morgan slipped into unconsciousness the morning after a party, and of possessing four indecent images of children on a USB drive.

Morgan died of respiratory failure brought on by drug use – a post mortem examination found he had morphine, codeine and a former “legal high” called Etizolam in his system. He had been found unconscious in the garage of one of the boys after a party the night before – when they found him, they carried him 160 yards down the street before two passers-by stopped them and called an ambulance.

The case hinged on whether they moved him to avoid getting into trouble with their parents, or to avoid getting into trouble with the police.

The boys sat flanked by the parents and their lawyers as they heard the verdicts – one of them broke down in tears as he was told that he had been found guilty.

Sentencing of the five teens is due to take place in a few weeks. The Youth Court Panel chairman Bridget Shaw warned them that they could expect a sentence of community service, and she also raised the prospect of a “restorative justice” sanction in which they might meet Morgan’s family to talk about what happened.