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Mourners at Tommy's funeral in February |
‘I’m so sorry’ message from teenager who stabbed friend
Murder trial told of note left among flowers and tributes at scene of knifing
A TEENAGER accused of murdering one of his best friends left a note at a shrine of tributes explaining his remorse and sorrow before giving himself up to police, the Old Bailey has heard.
Tyrell Frame Anderson – better known as Ty – has admitted stabbing Tommy Winston but denies murder in a trial expected to run for two weeks.
In the note, he wrote: “I’m so sorry to end your life Tom. You was one of my best pals… I love you Tom, I know I’ll be joining you soon Tom.”
Hours after leaving the note at the scene of Tommy’s death, Mr Anderson, 19, of Camden Road, walked into Kentish Town police station, identified himself and was charged by detectives.
The note – found by a dog-walker amid a sea of flowers and cards – added: “Tom I can’t believe I did it. I thought of 101 different ways to end my life and be with you Tom to tell you face to face how sorry I am. But I wasn’t man enough to do any of them. So I’m writing this before I give myself in for good.”
Tommy, 18, of Athlone Street, and Mr Anderson were well known throughout Kentish Town. The public gallery in Court Number 15 at the Old Bailey has been packed for the trial.
Owen Davies, defending, said that Mr Anderson “accepts that he is going to be punished for stabbing Tommy. What happened that day was totally unexpected and has upset a lot of people. These were extraordinary and tragic events.”
Yesterday (Wednesday), an eye-witness asked to provide evidence to the trial was warned that loyalty to friends should not prevent him giving a full account.
But Carisian Grant, a friend of both Tommy and Mr Anderson, remained silent as he was asked a series of questions by prosecutor Wendy Joseph, QC.
Appearing in court with a stripe of red dye running through his hair, Mr Grant, 20, said: “I don’t want to be here.”
Judge Richard Dawkins, QC, warned him that he could be held in contempt of court if he refused to co-operate. The judge said: “It is your duty as an eye-witness to the court and the community to tell us what you saw. It overrides any friendship with the parties in this case.”
Mr Grant later accepted that a statement he made to police was correct and sections were read to the court.
He told police: “I was walking Tommy to his car. I saw the blade go into his back. I saw Ty do it. He stabbed Tommy twice more in the back. I never thought in my life that Ty would do that.”
Tommy, 18, a former pupil at Acland Burghley School in Tufnell Park, collapsed from stab wounds in Brecknock Road on January 3 this year. He died on the pavement.
It is uncontested in court that Mr Anderson stabbed him with a knife during a scuffle in the street but a jury must decide on his intent.
Evidence brought in the case includes video footage, secretly taken by an eye-witness from a flat overlooking the street, which was shown to the jury on Friday. Ms Joseph told the jury they would watch it several times and that it was possible on close inspection to pick out the action of Mr Anderson stabbing Tommy in the back.
The Old Bailey heard how the two teenagers had been friends for many years, often part of the same football team, which, Mr Anderson later recalled, acted out the free-kick heroics of David Beckham on playing fields across Camden.
But Ms Joseph said that just before last Christmas the friendship broke down over “something very silly”, a disagreement over a mobile phone and hidden scooter parts.
She said: “Ty Anderson bought a phone from Tommy Winston. The cost of the phone was £40. Ty gave Tommy two £20 notes at different times. Tommy clearly thought the second of those notes was a fake.”
The two argued about it on Christmas Eve and Tommy decided to follow it up by removing parts of Mr Anderson’s scooter. Ms Joseph said: “Tommy wanted to make a point.
“He found (Mr Anderson’s) scooter and took the seat and the front panels. They were not damaged. They could have been put back but the scooter could not be used.”
The pair came face to face on January 3 as a group of friends watched an Arsenal football match on a giant TV screen through the windows of the Unicorn pub in Camden Road.
Ms Joseph said: “What (Mr Anderson) came for was revenge for what Tommy had done to his scooter.” She told the court that Mr Anderson had told friends it was “a matter of principle” and that “he wasn’t going to be taken for a mug or something like that”.
Using a claw hammer, Mr Anderson smashed the front windscreen of Tommy’s silver Ford Fiesta, sparking the scuffle on the street.
Ms Joseph said: “Ty had him up against the hardware shop. He aimed the hammer at Tommy’s head. Tommy kicked out at him. He tried to pull Ty’s hooded top over his eyes so Ty couldn’t see. There was a scuffle, wrestling, some punches thrown.”
Ms Joseph said that Mr Winston was then stabbed in the back and collapsed on the street.
She said that Tommy did not “appear to realise how badly he had been hurt”, adding: “Friends noticed he was walking slowly. Tommy fell to the ground by his car.”
The prosecutor told the court that Mr Anderson had claimed he was carrying the knife because he planned to “pop the tyres” of Tommy’s car.
The jury was read a statement on Monday compiled from an interview given to police by Tommy O’Keefe, one of Mr Winston’s best friends who was with him on the night he died. He said that he had not realised how seriously Tommy had been injured.
He told police: “Everybody gets hurts. They are normally all right. I thought he was unconscious but that he would get up after five minutes… I didn’t think Ty carried a knife.”
Mr O’Keefe, sometimes known among the group of friends as Little Tom, added: “I wanted to be with him (Tommy Winston) every day. If I did not see him, I would phone him.”
In relation to the removal of Mr Anderson’s scooter parts, Mr O’Keefe said the friends often pulled stunts such as moving scooters around the corner. He added: “That was nothing. We always do this to each other’s bikes.”
The court heard that Mr Anderson surrendered to police at Kentish Town police station on January 10, a week after Tommy’s death and just hours after he had left the note at the shrine in Brecknock Road.
While waiting for a police interview, Mr Anderson was visited in his cell by Joanna Aves, a council youth worker.
In a statement read to the court, Ms Aves said Mr Anderson had told her he felt like a “dead man walking” and that people would want to kill him “for what he had done to Tommy”. He had considered jumping off a tower block before giving himself up to police, she added.
The trial resumes today (Thursday).
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