A 16-year-old boy has been found guilty of murder after he fatally stabbed a man following a robbery in Cheltenham just before Christmas.
The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was convicted by a jury on Monday, 27 July, at Bristol Crown Court. The victim, Hamid Erfani, was stabbed in an alleyway between Larput Place and St Paul’s Road on 16 December 2025.
Mr Erfani, who was in his 40s, died following the attack. Gloucestershire Police confirmed that the teenager, who was 15 at the time, along with another boy aged 17, had previously admitted to separate charges of robbing Mr Erfani and possessing a bladed article.
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During the trial, it was heard that the two teenagers did not know Mr Erfani personally but were aware that he dealt drugs. They confronted him in the alleyway and demanded, at knifepoint, that he hand over money and drugs. Mr Erfani complied without resistance, also handing over a mobile phone.
The boys then fled the scene, discarding their knives as they ran. The murder weapon was subsequently recovered by police from bushes near Leisure at Cheltenham.
In his defence, Charles Rowe KC argued that the 17-year-old had acted in self-defence, claiming the victim had lunged at them after the robbery. However, prosecutor Anna Vigars KC asserted that Mr Erfani was unarmed and posed no threat, stating, “Mr Erfani had no knife on him and, other than begging [the boys] not to take his mobile, he had offered no resistance to the robbery.”
She further described the stabbing as “a deliberate act done for no reason that anyone could see – an act of brutality, to reinforce the fact that [the boy] was not one to be messed with, to ensure that his name was not reported in connection with the robbery that they had just committed.”
Both teenagers have been remanded in custody and are due to be sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday, 8 September.
“The stabbing was a deliberate act done for no reason that anyone could see – an act of brutality.”
The case marks a tragic incident highlighting the severe consequences of violent crime in the community, underlining the ongoing challenges in addressing youth crime and knife offences.