Teenage pleads guilty to murdering

 

A teenage computer engineer has pleaded guilty to murdering a 14-year-old boy he met over the internet.
Lewis Daynes, 19, admitted killing Breck Bednar, 14, on 17 February after the younger boy travelled to his flat in Grays, Essex.

Daynes pleaded guilty as his murder trial was due to get under way at Chelmsford crown court in Essex.
Bednar was found with a fatal stab wound to the neck after going to meet Daynes, with whom he had played computer games online.
There was little reaction from Bednar’s parents, oil millionaire Barry Bednar, 49, from Houston, Texas, and US-born teaching assistant Lorin LaFave, 47, as their son’s killer pled guilty.
Daynes originally pleaded not guilty to the crime on 12 September.
As the trial was due to begin on Tuesday, Daynes’s barrister, Simon Mayo, asked the judge, Mrs Justice Cox, to put the murder charge to him again.
Flanked by a court official in the glass-encased dock, Daynes stood and said “guilty” in a voice that was barely audible to the court.
Cox then adjourned the hearing as Bednar’s parents and relatives were ushered into a side room.
The guilty plea took many in the court by surprise as a three-week trial had until hours earlier been due to get under way. Jury selection for the trial took place on Monday and a final group of 12 jurors was expected to be sworn in before Whittam opened the prosecution case.