A teenager from Gomersal was stabbed to death in a pre-planned fight over an argument about a boy, a court has heard.

Kayla Smith, Archie Rycroft and Blake Dowling are all on trial at Leeds Crown Court over the killing of 16-year-old Chloe Watson Dransfield, who died on a street in Austhorpe in March.

They each deny murder and the two males deny manslaughter. Smith admits manslaughter but this has been deemed unacceptable to the Crown, who say her intentions were premeditated.

Opening the case this morning, prosecutor Mark McKone KC said Smith admits delivering the fatal blow to Chloe with a knife, and had made several threats to stab her in the hours leading up to the tragedy.

Chloe Watson Dransfield was fatally stabbed in March this year.

placeholder image — Chloe Watson Dransfield was fatally stabbed in March this year.

Chloe attended a pre-planned fight with Smith in the early hours of March 28, the jury was told.

Mr McKone said defendant Dowling had been in a relationship with both Chloe and Smith, and the 18-year-old had been with Chloe in the hours before her death.

It is claimed he knew of the “bad blood” between the girls and he had heard threats Smith had made to Chloe.

In the hours before the killing, the court heard a witness overheard Smith on the phone to Chloe telling her she was “going to stab her”, and later said to Chloe over the phone: “I’m gonna stab you in your throat.”

Smith, 18, was also said to message a friend and said: “I’m stabbing her…on my nana’s ashes.”

Mr McKone said that when it was confirmed Chloe was travelling to the fight, Smith told that friend: “She’s on her way and I’m stabbing her.”

Chloe was heard to say that she was “not scared” of Smith.

Dowling and Chloe travelled to the scene of the planned fight on Kennerleigh Avenue in Austhorpe – the home of Smith’s grandfather – at around 5am.

Mr McKone said Dowling had helped organise the fight.

After Dowling and Chloe arrived, Smith approached her in the street at 5.10am armed with a knife, with Rycroft behind her amid claims he was egging her on to be violent.

Smith can be heard on a Ring doorbell shouting to Chloe “come on big girl”, Mr McKone said.

Seeing she had a knife, it was claimed Chloe tried to turn and run, but her slider shoes came off.

Smith chased her down and stabbed her in the back and neck several times, Mr McKone said.

With Chloe lying on the floor with a pool of blood forming, Smith’s grandfather, Geoffrey Smith, came out of his home and said he would call 999.

The Crown say Geoffrey Smith said: “I’m ringing the police.”

But it was claimed that Kayla Smith replied: “You can’t ring the police, she’s dead.”

An ambulance was not called for another 37 minutes, and thereafter Geoffrey Smith was seen performing CPR on Chloe. An alerted neighbour then took over until the paramedics arrived.

Chloe was taken to hospital but died at 6.40am.

A postmortem revealed she suffered five stab wounds to her back and neck.

One of the stab wounds had pierced a lung and caused significant bleeding, leading to cardiac arrest and collapse.

The 20cm-long knife, suspected of being the weapon in question, was later found on the draining board in Smith’s grandfather’s home, Mr McKone added.

Having been arrested, Dowling, of no fixed address, gave a no-comment interview to police.

Twenty-year-old Rycroft, of Middleton Park Road, Leeds, gave a prepared statement claiming he was not responsible and did not see the knife in Smith’s hand.

Smith, of Kennerleigh Avenue, underwent four interviews, with Mr McKone saying she lied each time.

He added that during her first two, she even claimed she knew nothing of a girl being stabbed, and she refused to give the PIN to her phone and refused to answer some of the police questions.

Dowling later accepted booking the taxi for him and Chloe, knowing there could be a fight, but claims it would be a “normal” fight without any weapons.

Rycroft admitted being with Smith but still maintains he did not know Smith had the knife.

Mr McKone said: “Kayla Smith accepts stabbing Chloe and causing the fatal wound. However, Kayla’s case is that she did not intend to kill Chloe or to cause Chloe really serious harm.

“The issue for Kayla, therefore, is did Kayla intend for Chloe to be killed or caused really serious harm?”

The trial continues and is expected to last up to four weeks.