A jury has retired to consider its verdicts on two 12-year-old boys accused of murdering a man who was stabbed through the heart with a machete.

The youths, who cannot be identified because of their age, are alleged by the Crown to be jointly responsible for the murder of Shawn Seesahai, but blame each other for inflicting the fatal wound to his back.

One of the defendants has admitted possessing the machete at the scene near a bench at Stowlawn playing fields in Wolverhampton, but told jurors his co-accused used the weapon to stab the 19-year-old.

The co-accused told Nottingham Crown Court that his only involvement was pushing Mr Seesahai and that he was “nowhere near” as his friend killed the victim.

Shawn Seesahai death
Floral tributes left at the scene at Stowlawn playing fields in Wolverhampton where Shawn Seesahai died (Matthew Cooper/PA)

In closing speeches to jurors on Monday, defence KCs Rachel Brand and Paul Lewis separately invited jurors to acquit their client of murder and an alternative count of manslaughter.

Prosecutors have said Mr Seesahai, originally from Anguilla in the Caribbean but living in Birmingham, was slashed on the legs and hit so hard in the attack on November 13 last year that a piece of bone in his skull came away.

Both defendants deny murdering Mr Seesahai, who was pronounced dead at the scene after suffering a fatal 9in (23cm) deep wound which entered his back and “almost came out of” his chest.

High Court Judge Mrs Justice Tipples invited the jurors to retire to start their deliberations on Wednesday morning after a trial lasting nearly five weeks.