Teenage girl saw boyfriend stabbed to death, court hears

A teenager has told a murder trial how she watched her boyfriend's body "turning white" after he had been fatally stabbed.

Keryn Knox, 19, said had been drinking with her partner Kayden Moy and friends at Irvine Beach on 17 May last year when he was attacked.

Jay Stewart, 18, and a 15-year-old boy are accused, while acting with 18-year-old Cole Turley, of pursuing Kayden, causing him to fall to the ground before repeatedly stabbing him.

Turley pleaded guilty before the trial to the murder charge, while the two teenagers on trial have lodged a special defence of incrimination against him.

The High Court in Glasgow heard from Kayden's friend Jay McGarry, 18 and his girlfriend Keryn Knox, 19, who claimed to have watched him being stabbed twice by Turley.

An emotional Knox described her partner "turning white" and his lips going blue after the attack.

She said Stewart, Turley and the 15-year-old threw rocks at them when they were planning to leave.

The teenager claimed that her boyfriend had gone up alone to the sand dune where the trio were, but Turley was not there initially.

She said there was shouting and Stewart was "bouncing back and forth as if he was going to go for Kayden".

Prosecutor Liam Ewing KC asked her what happened next and she replied: "Cole Turley ran from Kayden's left side.

"Kayden saw a weapon - a blade - and when he tried to turn around, he slipped and when he tried to get back up, Cole stabbed him to the left lower side twice.

"After that, Kayden got up and I think he realised what happened and he ran down to the beach."

The witnesses said Turley and the two others left the scene.

When asked what happened at the beach, Knox said: "Kayden was on the floor. His body turned completely white and his lips were blue.

"People were crowding around him, trying to put his T-shirt on the wound."

Jurors were told that elderly people came along and assisted Kayden before an air ambulance arrived for him.

In the afternoon, Keryn Knox told the court that Stewart had an extendable baton and a "butcher's-style knife" in his possession when she first encountered him.

The witness added that Turley also had a kitchen knife which had a blade with "white blotches" on it.

The prosecutor read a police statement given by Knox in which she said that Kayden had picked up a glass bottle of cherry Sourz.

The statement said: "Cole Turley ran from the side and swung his arm up and Kayden threw the bottle to the side. It didn't hit anyone and he ran back in the direction he came from."

Knox denied that Kayden had a bottle and claimed to have been "very emotional" when giving the statement.

She claimed that Stewart shouted "Himshie's on the floor" as he left the scene.

Jurors had previously been told that Kayden and his group were member of the Himshie gang in East Kilbride while the accused youths were members of the town's Murray Boys gang.

Asked who was on the floor, Knox replied: "Kayden."

Donald Findlay KC, defending Stewart, put it to the witness that she got the information that his client had a knife from social media and she replied: "Yes."

Knox later told the prosecutor that the information given to police regarding Kayden and a bottle also came from social media.

The also court heard from Kayden's friend Jay McGarry, who also uses the name Mooney, by pre-recorded police interview and court evidence.

McGarry stated that he received a message on Instagram from Stewart in "March or April" 2025.

One of the messages said: "I will rip wee Kayden's lungs out of him."

The witness had previously told jurors that he was with Kayden before the attack on him on Irvine Beach.

He said that he ran from the beach after rocks were thrown at his group but did not know who threw them.

McGarry said he had no contact with Stewart, Turley and the 15-year-old after the incident.

Stewart and the 15-year-old also face other charges which include attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The trial continues before Judge Lord Scott.