Teen who unlawfully killed man in knife fight named

A "very dangerous" teenager found guilty of unlawfully killing a 27-year-old man in a knife fight can be named, a judge has ruled.

Nehemiah McIvor-Murray, 17, of Clarkson Court, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, was jailed for eight years at St Albans Crown Court on Thursday after being convicted of killing Daniel Ceidi in Hatfield in March.

McIvor-Murray had been found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter by jurors in October following a trial.

Judge Jonathan Mann lifted an anonymity order at the sentencing, which was imposed due to the defendant's age, after the BBC argued that revealing the teenager's identity would be in the public interest.

The trial had heard how Mr Ceidi died after an altercation with McIvor-Murray near The Galleria shopping centre at lunchtime on Sunday, 23 March.

McIvor-Murray said he acted in self-defence and did not mean to cause serious harm.

Jurors heard that McIvor-Murray had previous convictions for possessing a machete and causing "serious" harm with a machete.

Judge Mann told the teenager, who will turn 18 in July, that "everything you do suggests that you have become a very dangerous young man".

Prosecutors said McIvor-Murray had been released from youth detention shortly before he killed Mr Ceidi.

Lawyers representing the teenager, who was 16 when he killed Mr Ceidi, told the judge of the difficulties he had faced growing up.

They said his father, Saul Murray, had been murdered in Luton in 2022.

Prosecuting barrister Neil Moore had told jurors that the teenager held a "grudge" against Mr Ceidi, who worked in recruitment and also lived in Hatfield.

Both were carrying knives when they later fought at an old bus station, Mr Moore said.

Mr Moore said Mr Ceidi, who studied finance at the University of Hertfordshire, had picked up a knife from his parents' kitchen.

"He [Mr Ceidi] was afraid of the defendant, who he feared was out to get him," Mr Moore told the jury.

"He picked up the knife because he was extremely fearful," he added.

Police found the knife Mr Ceidi had been armed with.

Mr Moore said the teenager disposed of the knife he had used and changed his shoes and went for treatment for a hand injury to a hospital "out of the area".

Mr Moore had told jurors that McIvor-Murray had a "propensity" for carrying "really large" knives and that police had found an image of a knife with a serrated edge on the youth's phone.

Lawyers representing the teenager disagreed that he had a propensity for carrying knives.

McIvor-Murray had opted not to give evidence at the trial and had also answered "no comment" when questioned by police after his arrest, jurors were told.

His solicitor had read a statement to police, saying he was, "at all times acting in self-defence".

Det Ch Insp Nick Gardner, a member of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said: "My thoughts remain with the victim's family at this difficult time, and they have been supported by our officers as they try to come to terms with their loss."

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