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Richard Whelan |
‘Killer laughed before knifing bus passenger’
A WOMAN described for the first time this week how a “laughing” killer stabbed her boyfriend on a bus in Holloway.
Richard Whelan was attacked with a knife on the top deck of a 43 bus when he told another passenger, Anthony Joseph, of Theseus Walk, Islington, to stop throwing chips.
Legal secretary Kerry Barker, 38, and her boyfriend, Mr Whelan, 27, were confronted by a “cruel and brutal” assailant, said prosecutor James Turner QC at the Old Bailey.
He told the jury that Joseph drew a knife during a “silly argument” and stabbed Mr Whelan seven times. One fatal wound was to the heart.
Only hours earlier, Joseph, 22, had been released from prison in Manchester after serving five weeks on remand before being cleared of all charges.
When he arrived in London he may have been under the influence of drink or drugs before getting on the bus which Mr Whelan, a ticket agent from Kentish Town, and Ms Barker boarded.
Joseph admits being the killer but claims he was under a mental disability. He denies murder and claims manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility.
Mr Turner said Joseph was “an angry man with a bad temper” who regularly carried a knife. After his release he made death threats to a family he believed were responsible for him being inside.
Ms Barker, close to tears, told the jury that on a Friday night in July, 2005, she joined Mr Whelan, her boyfriend of two years, for after-work drinks at two pubs in Islington before they caught the 43 bus, intending to go to her flat in Muswell Hill.
She said Mr Whelan, who lived with his widowed father, was not a violent man or argumentative.
“He was very calm, got on well with people and was a very private person. I was quite tipsy. Richard was fine,” she recalled.
As they chatted on the top deck they became aware of Joseph flicking chips at another female passenger, who got up and left.
“I said to Richard ‘he better not start throwing them at me’. He did. He was laughing. Richard stood up. I turned round and they were fighting,” Ms Barker said.
She told the jury she tried to pull Joseph off and saw he had a knife in his right hand.
Ms Barker said: “I rang the bell and started screaming. Richard told me he had been stabbed. It was quite obvious because his shirt was covered in blood.”
She went with him from the Holloway Road scene, close to Archway Station, to Whittington Hospital and was at his side when he was pronounced dead.
The court heard that, when arrested a week later, Joseph had another knife on him which he handed over to police.
Psychiatrists will be giving evidence about his mental condition. One claims he is faking symptoms.
The trial continues. |
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