Boy, 16, was electrocuted after being chased onto prepare tracks by armed gang who then beat him with a hammer

A 16-year-old boy was left close to death after he was ‘electrocuted’ while being chased onto train tracks by a hammer-wielding gang, a court heard.

Ted Warne-Harvey’s body was ‘smoking’ after he tripped onto a live rail while desperately running for his life from youths armed with metal poles and hammers.

In a terrifying attack caught on CCTV, the teenager was struck with a hammer moments before he fell onto the tracks near Westgate-on-Sea railway station in Kent on September 26 2021.

Mr Warne-Harvey was left splayed out on the tracks with his body visibly ‘smoking’, jurors heard.

The violent mob, some of whom were as young as 15, continued to attack the injured teen before fleeing the scene. He was left for dead until a heroic bystander rushed in to pull him to safety.

Two members of the group, Kaya Barratt and Harvey Kara, were later convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Mr Warne-Harvey was left with life-changing burns and needed three operations, including plastic surgery.

Two other thugs, Declan Stewart and James Odero, were also convicted last week after being accused of ‘encouraging and assisting’ in the horror chase. 

Stewart and Odero were aged 16 and 17 respectively at the time of the attack. 

The trial heard that Mr Warne-Harvey had gone to the train station to sell his bike to another teen.

When he arrived with his girlfriend, also 16, they were confronted by a gang, including a  boy who wanted to ‘buy’ the bike, the court heard.

KentOnline reports that the court heard how two of the group, Barratt and Kara, were armed with the hammer and pole respectively. Stewart and Odero were among those who chased Mr Warne-Harvey into the station.

When the schoolboy realised he had nowhere to go, he jumped down onto the tracks.

Jurors heard that Barratt, still armed with a weapon, followed Mr Warne-Harvey onto the tracks, causing him to trip and land on a live rail. 

At Canterbury Crown Court, prosecutor Patrick Dennis said: ‘Ted was electrocuted. The footage shows the smoke starting to come from Ted as a result of falling on the tracks.

‘And as he was being electrocuted, Barratt struck him twice with the hammer.

‘The blows were not particularly hard, that’s fair to say, but the fact he was striking someone with a hammer as they were being electrocuted is significant.’

The teen suffered an electrical burn down to the bone and was transferred to a specialists bern unit.

Mr Dennis told the court that Odero and Stewart were as responsible for the attack as their two co-accused, Barratt and Kara. 

Last Wednesday, Stewart and Odero were both found guilty in relation to the Westgate incident of causing GBH but were cleared of the more serious charge of causing GBH with intent. 

Stewart was found guilty of violent disorder as well.

The pair were released on bail until sentencing on April 28.

Barrat and Kara were convicted in separate youth proceedings and were handed 20-month youth rehabilitation orders in August. They were put on a four-month tagged curfew and ordered to carry out 270 hours of unpaid work.

Although they were 15 at the time of the Westgate attack, the anonymity order expires when the defendant turns 18. 

The victim’s father, Stuart Harvey, 53, described his son as a very active boy who boxes, rides his bike and plays the drums. 

The schoolboy had also been struck in a hit-and-run incident while cycling up Blean Hill, near Canterbury, a few months before the chase.

Mr Harvey recalled how he received a call from his son who was ‘screaming down the phone to me in pain, saying he’d been hit by a car’.

He added: ‘It later turned out to be two cars. I was beside myself.

‘I had been expecting him to come home and the next thing I knew he was asking me to come quickly because he’d been hit.’

Mr Harvey found his son shaking on the street, with blood all over his hands.

Both drivers had fled the scene and Mr Warne-Harvey has no recollection of the cars involved. 

The teenager was rushed to hospital with multiple fractures to his foot, ankle, lower leg, arm, wrist and hand.

His parents, Stuart and Laura Harvey, are desperate to see the drivers brought to justice.