The last image of Olly Stephens shows a teenage boy strolling along in a pair of slip-on slider shoes on his way to meet a girl in a park.

The sighting of him on his way to Bugs Bottom Fields was captured on CCTV close to his home in Emmer Green and shown to the jury at Reading Crown Court.

It was a little after 3.30pm on a Sunday afternoon.

Read More: Two teenage boys found guilty of murder of Olly Stephens

He thought he was meeting the girl to give her tobacco. He had no idea he was heading into an ambush that would take his life.

On his way, he exchanged a friendly greeting with neighbours.

By 5pm Olly was dead. He had been stabbed twice.

Olly had suffered two independently fatal stab wounds, one to the chest, 9cms deep, and one to the back 17cms deep.

Olly was 13 when he died, a schoolboy at Highdown School in Emmer Green and recently diagnosed with autism.

He was part of a wide social media circle that included the two boys who murdered him.

They were not friends in that they regularly hung out together, they did not live near each other - their interaction was mostly on social media.

One boy had met Olly six or seven times, the other only once or twice.

Their online relationship had deteriorated because of perceived online insults.

The trial at Reading Crown Court lifted the lid on the online world which occupied the lives of all three boys - where talk of killing and shanking was everyday chat.

The jury saw videos of boys described as “barely pubescent teenagers” posing with knives.

One of the boy’s gangster images attracted attention from a girl, who flooded his Instagram profile with heart emojis.

This circle of friends contacted each other using apps including SnapChat voice message, often in snatches only a few seconds long - and all in a street slang bordering on code difficult to decipher.

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It was through these messages and other social media chat that police pieced together what had happened during the last few days of Olly’s life.

Rumours have swirled round Reading on social media since the two boys and the girl were arrested.

Just about every teenager in Reading claims they have inside knowledge about why Olly died.

The stark facts as presented to the court are heartbreaking in their banality.

The jury heard they were young teenagers who fell out because one thought Olly was posting lies about him online and showing him up.

The other boy, who was 14 at the time, was frightened an older boy would come after him. He said it was all Olly’s fault because of a Snapchat Olly had posted.

It was these childish fallings-out, as old as time, that led to Olly’s death, the court heard.

Olly Stephens captured on a home security camera walking towards Bugs Bottom minutes before he was fatally stabbed by two boys
Olly Stephens captured on a home security camera walking towards Bugs Bottom minutes before he was fatally stabbed by two boys

The two boys who had been best friends, turned on each other after they were arrested.

The older boy, Boy One, said he only wanted a fist fight with Olly to settle scores, despite telling a friend online the night before he hated Olly and wanted to give him “bangs or stabs.”

He was the one who involved the girl who lured Olly to Bugs Bottom.

But he said he never wanted Boy Two to get involved in the fight and was shocked when he pulled out a knife.

The other boy (Boy Two), who was 13, said it was his friend who had told him to bring the ‘cheffer’ - knife in street slang deriving from ‘to chef’ - or cut up something or someone.

They knew Olly sometimes carried a knife, Boy Two said, and he was armed ‘in case he needed to be’.

The pair left Reading town centre on an e-scooter on the afternoon of January 3.

They were seen on CCTV outside a Co-op in London Road and again outside Budgens in Emmer Green where they were joined by the girl and other boys.

The girl went on alone to meet Olly while the two boys and others waited in woodlands at the bottom of Bugs Bottom.

It was a winter’s afternoon just before dusk and plenty of people were out walking their dogs.

The boys rode the e-scooter fast through the park, weaving in and out of walkers.

They confronted Olly but he wouldn’t apologise or take the “patterning” or humiliation they had planned.

A fight began, with Olly and Boy One throwing punches at each other, watched by the girl and other boys.

Boy One claimed his friend “turned red and started shaking” and lunged with a knife, stabbing Olly twice.

Boy Two claimed he saw Olly reach for his waistband - a place he believed Olly had hidden a knife in the past.

He thought Olly was about to stab his friend and lunged at Olly’s upper arm to defend him.

He said he didn't know how OIly suffered the back wound but believed it may have been when Olly fell onto him.

Witness Zoe Neville saw two boys throwing punches at each other.

She heard a peculiar metallic ‘ting’ sound but carried on walking.

Minutes later, she saw a boy she knew accompanying Olly who was now staggering.

She questioned whether he was drunk or was on drugs. That impression was banished when Olly collapsed and Mrs Neville, a cardiac nurse, saw blood around his middle.

She got the other boy to call 999 and began CPR. It was 3.46pm - just 12 minutes since Olly had left home.

The boy ran to Olly’s house and his father arrived, followed by paramedics and trauma doctors who arrived in an air ambulance from the south coast.

They operated on Olly in an ambulance but they could not save him.

While medics were fighting to save his life, the teenagers left Bugs Bottom, the two boys at speed on the e-scooter, the girl separately.

A witness at the edge of the park recalled seeing the girl ‘strutting’ along and looking like a Queen Bee.

He recalled her looking back over her shoulder into the park, where they had left Olly.

Other witnesses saw the boys heading down Hemdean Road with one shouting ‘man, I need your advice, I need your advice’.

They split up. Boy Two threw the knife into the River Thames off Reading Bridge and went home.

Boy One met friends in Reading town centre before meeting Boy Two and another boy and heading to Palmer Park. Boy Two’s bloodstained clothing was in a Foot Asylum bag which was thrown over a fence close to the railway line.

Police combing Reading for clues found the bag on January 19, 16 days after Olly’s death.

In the hours after the attack, both boys deleted social media messages and videos.

Boy One went to Loddon Valley police station with a solicitor that night.

Boy Two was arrested at his home a short time later. The girl was also arrested.

Olly’s funeral was held on February 5. School and family friends lined the road leading to Reading Crematorium and wept and threw flowers as his cortege passed.

A tree has been planted at Bugs Bottom in memory of Olly Stephens.

It is adorned with keepsakes, mementos and flowers left by his loving friends and family.

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