ANY one of three knife wounds was enough to kill Bolton schoolboy Reece Tansey, a jury has been told.

Harper Green School pupil Reece, aged 15, was stabbed six times during an altercation with two other teenagers in Walker Avenue, Great Lever, in the early hours of May 4.

But, giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court, where two 15-year-old boys are on trial for Reece’s murder, pathologist Naomi Carter explained that three wounds were particularly serious, with a knife plunging up to 12cm into the schoolboy’s body.

One stab wound, through Reece’s upper arm ended in his arm pit but not before slicing into a main artery and vein, leading to massive blood loss, said Ms Carter.

Another wound which entered his shoulder, punctured his lung and a third, in his back, ended up puncturing his liver.

The latter knife wound also shaved bone from his rib and, said Ms Carter, would have been inflicted with “severe force”.

“Bone, in general, requires severe force to cut it,” said Dr Carter, who added that any of the three most serious stab wounds were enough on their own, to cause death.

The jury also heard from major incident analyst Natalie Leftwich, who took them through a series of Snapchat and other messages which passed between Reece and his attackers in the hours leading up to his death. The prosecution claim the boys were goading Reece into meeting up for a fight.

Defendants Boy A and Boy B, who are aged 15 and cannot be named, repeatedly goaded Reece into meeting them for a fight.

Boy A admits he stabbed Reece but claims he did not intend to kill or seriously hurt him, while Boy B alleges that he did not know his friend had a knife.

The trial continues.