A TEENAGER who murdered a homeless man in a street fight has admitted wounding his own father in a previous assault.

Brian Jewell is awaiting sentence at Exeter Crown Court for the murder of 45-year-old Stephen Cook in the centre of the city in January this year.

He committed that offence while awaiting trial for an attack on his 42-year-old father Daniel in 2021. He pleaded guilty to that offence today (Tuesday) six days before he was due to stand trial for it.

Jewell, aged 19, of no fixed address, admitted wounding Daniel Jewell in 2021. He also admitted causing actual bodily harm to an officer at Exeter Prison who he assaulted on February 8, 2023, when he was on remand on the murder charge.

Judge Anna Richardson adjourned sentence in both cases to September 25, when Jewell is due to be sentenced for the murder by Judge Mr Justice Saini, who presided over the murder trial.

Jewell was found guilty of murdering Mr Cook on August 3 this year.

Mr Cook died after being stabbed in the heart during a street fight outside a betting shop in Sidwell Street, Exeter, on the evening of January 28.

He used a £10 camping knife which he had bought the previous day to kill Mr Cook, who lived just long enough to make a farewell phone call to his daughter as he lay dying.

Jewell claimed he acted in self-defence after Mr Cook lunged at him with a broken bottle but the jury rejected his account after studying digitally enhanced CCTV footage which showed he opened and locked the knife in his pocket, pulled it out, and delivered a single sweeping blow into Mr Cook’s body.

Jewell was a care leaver who had become homeless after choosing to move out of sheltered accommodation provided by the council.

He was living rough in a tented encampment in woodland on the banks of the River Exe near St David’s Station.