Islington Tribune - by DAVID ST GEORGE Published: 20 June 2008
Friend ‘went after schoolboy’s killers’
WITH the anniversary of his death looming, details of the multiple injuries inflicted on schoolboy Martin Dinnegan were described to Old Bailey jurors this week. The court heard how medics put on “stab-proof vests” before moving in on the spot near the Axminster Road junction with Tollington Way, in Holloway, where 14-year-old Martin was fatally attacked on June 26 last year.
An hour earlier he said he did not want any trouble with a group of boys involved in an exchange of “dirty looks” in Holloway Road.
One of Martin’s pals told the jury he witnessed the “rapid arm movements” of a 16-year-old alleged to be the attacker. “When I got to Martin he wasn’t moving,” he said. “I was angry and wanted to get the people who had hurt him. I went after them but lost them. On my return to Axminster Road Martin was in the same position in the road. It was obvious he was dead,” he said.
Pathologist Dr Benjamin Swift said he found 25 areas of injury on the victim. Four fatal knife wounds to the upper back had pierced vital organs.
Sean Clark, 19, of Bennet Court, Axminster Road, Rene John-Baptiste, 21, of Plaistow, east London, and two others aged 16 and 17 from Islington – whose identities cannot be revealed – deny murder charges.
The trial continues.