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Elliot Guy with baby Eleanor, born just weeks before he was stabbed to death |
Stabbing victim killed ‘at the happiest time of his life’
Knifing at party claims life of furniture-maker who had just become father
THE fatal stabbing of the father of a new-born child on Saturday has brought a close-knit community in Tufnell Park out in mourning – and in anger against the randomness of knife crime.
Newly-qualified furniture-maker Elliot Guy, 27, was stabbed at a party in a flat in Junction Road in the early hours.
Staff at the nearby Boston pub and Dome club found him staggering in the street but were unable to save him.
Mr Guy’s best friend, Patrick Koupland, said that floral tributes in Burghley Road and a vigil attended by friends on Monday night reflected the victim’s popularity in the area where he was raised.
“He was the type of person who everybody wants to be around,” Mr Koupland said.
“He was one of those guys lots of people would want to be his friend. Elliot was without doubt my best friend – but I know a lot of other people felt that too. That was the sort of person he was.”
Police are interviewing guests from the party at 247a Junction Road, where Mr Guy received the fatal wound to the throat shortly before 3am. Two men and a woman were arrested, and later released on bail.
Mr Guy was stabbed a mile from the spot where teenager Ben Kinsella was fatally wounded in a knife attack on June 29.
Mr Koupland, 28, now a merchant banker, first met Mr Guy when he was 12 as the boys grew up in Tufnell Park.
“He didn’t come from a particularly privileged background, but he always had big dreams of where he wanted to go in life,” he said.
Friends agree that Mr Guy was killed at the happiest time of his life. He and his partner of six years, Amy Smith, a regional director for property firm Chesterton, had a daughter, Eleanor, in April, and moved to Ealing, west London.
Miss Smith said: “He loved his little girl – he wouldn’t want to be apart from her. He sang to her continually and she responded to him.
“Towards the person who has done this I don’t feel anything. This man or woman, their life must be worthless.”
Mr Koupland said: “He moved out of the area because he wanted to bring his daughter up somewhere safe, leafy. His brother being 16 in Tufnell Park – he worried about him getting mixed up with knife crime.”
Mr Guy served an apprenticeship as a carpenter and, after a year-long cabinet-making course that ended only weeks ago, had become a master craftsman.
Another close friend, recruitment consultant Alex Burton, 27, was a fellow pupil at Hargrave Park School in Archway and Holloway Boys’ School, now Holloway School, in Hilldrop Road.
At a vigil held on Monday outside Acland Burghley School, close to the crime scene, Mr Burton said dozens of people he had not spoken to since primary school had said they remembered “El” with fondness.
“El was the kind of guy that made you want to be a better person,” Mr Burton said. “He was one of the most generous people I know.”
Mr Guy’s Jamaican father died when he was 14, and his mother later moved from Tufnell Park to Kentish Town, but he was a regular visitor both to her, his brothers and to his old friends in Kentish Town and Archway.
His family released a statement after the murder: “No words can express how our family is feeling. This terrible act of violence has led to the loss of a much-loved partner, father, brother and son.
“Elliot was a gentle man who was delighted at having become a father and was looking forward to raising his daughter. We are grateful for all the support we have had from family and friends.”
A staff member at The Boston pub, describing the scene on the night of the stabbing, said: “There was nothing anyone could have done. It was a sad situation and he was just too far gone.”
Detective Inspector Simon Moring said: “We are keen to hear from anyone who was at a house party at 247a Junction Road, late on Friday night into the early hours of Saturday morning. Elliot was at the party, where we believe he was stabbed shortly before 3am.”
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 020 8345 4142. |
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