A 17-year-old boy told his friend he’d “happily do 20 to life” before stabbing and slashing him during a horrific seven-hour ordeal.
Kai Ashcroft – then 17- claimed his friend had “ruined his life” before launching an extraordinary attack on the pal who he had known for more than a decade.
Ashcroft also whipped his victim with a belt and forced him to take drugs as he held him hostage and threatened to “cut him up.” The Kai had blamed the other teen over an incident a decade earlier that he claimed “ruined his life.”
While being arrested, he alarmingly confessed to police he planned to “hunt him down” and “execute” him in a manner which he said would be “bloody”.
The court heard on Thursday that Ashcroft and Harry Bradshaw had been friends between the ages of four and 10 before they split off and went to different schools. But they resumed contact in the months leading up to December 2025 after messaging via Instagram, leading to the pair frequently meeting up.
They had been taking drugs before the “atmosphere shifted” and later involved the defendant “becoming paranoid” at around 1am, asking his friend “who had sent him to his address.”
Mr Bradshaw responded by “asking him what was going on in his head”, at which stage Ashcroft “brought up an issue which took place when the pair were younger”. The complainant however stated he did not remember the incident in question, leading to an argument erupting between the two, reports The Liverpool Echo.
Ashcroft then became “increasingly aggressive,” “blaming Mr Bradshaw for ruining his life” and telling him that he “owed him his life.” He went on to demand his victim “admitted it,” although he pleaded that he “wasn’t admitting anything that wasn’t true.”
The now 18-year-old started punching and kicking Mr Bradshaw before arming himself wife a kitchen knife, waving the weapon around and again urging him to confess. He went on to state he’d “happily do 20 years to life for a scruffy like you” and added: “I have nothing left.”
Ashford then started to record Mr Bradshaw, demanded £200 before repeatedly “poking and slashing” the complaint with the knife, leaving him in “extreme pain” and with cuts to his legs. He later admitted wounding with intent and false imprisonment.
The Mirror