A 17-YEAR-OLD boy was hunted down by a killer gang before being stripped, stabbed, stripped and left to die, a court heard.

Harry Baker desperately ran for his life as he was chased by up to seven for around a mile through Barry, a jury was told.

A court heard he was found dead at a freight container yard at the town’s shipping port after allegedly suffering a "swift, bloody and merciless attack".

Six men and a teenager deny a charge of murder in August 2019.

Prosecutor Paul Lewis QC said Harry's blood-covered body was found by workers arriving for their shift at the Intermodal Terminal at Barry Docks.

He told the jury: "He was lying face-down on the ground. He had been repeatedly stabbed and his clothing had been stripped from his body.

"He was just 17 years old at the date he was so brutally murdered.

"Harry Baker was deliberately targeted as a victim. He was ruthlessly hunted down by vicious people who were determined to find him."

Newport Crown Court heard Harry and friend Louis Johnson were "ambushed" in a street by the gang in a row over selling drugs – and he tried to flee.

Mr Lewis said: "The two of them ran away from attackers. They were chased by an armed and deadly gang through the town of Barry and towards the docks for a distance of about a mile.

"Harry Baker attempted to escape his pursuers by climbing a fence and taking refuge in a secure floodlit docks compound. He no doubt thought he would be safe there but he wasn’t. His killers were determined.

"They subjected him to a swift, bloody, and merciless attack before quickly fleeing from the scene.

"Fortunately for him, you may conclude, Louis Johnson managed to escape the gang by climbing back out of the compound fence and fleeing the scene.

"Harry Baker was not so lucky. He was stabbed repeatedly and he was left to die alone in that yard."

Mr Lewis said pathologists concluded it must have taken Harry some time to die from his injuries.

He added: "As he lay dying his attackers made off in a car sent to the scene in order to make their getaway.”

The court heard Harry, from Cardiff, was hunted by the gang after he started to sell drugs in Barry.

Mr Lewis said: "Harry Baker was not from Barry but it seemed he started selling hard drugs in the town and others took umbrage at this – either because he had in some way ripped them off or because he had come onto their turf in Barry, stealing their lucrative business.

“That was why he was hunted down and cruelly murdered.”

Leon Clifford, 23, Raymond Thompson, 48, Lewis Evans, 62, Ryan Palmer, 34, Peter McCarthy, 37, all from Barry, Leon Symons, 22 from Ely in Cardiff and a 17-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons, all deny murder.

The trial continues.