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Teenager jailed ‘for the protection of public’ after Oxford St stabbing
A TEENAGE killer, who boasted that he always carried a knife, was this week locked up “for public protection” after a fatal attack in Oxford Street.
Old Bailey Judge Richard Hawkins, QC, ordered Anthony Costa to serve a minimum five years for manslaughter.
Costa, 19, a building worker from Walthamstow, ignored the pleas of his own mother, a nurse, not to go out armed with a blade, the judge said.
And he even tried to justify his actions in walking the streets with a knife to a probation officer.
The court heard that in a confrontation between two groups of men in crowded Oxford Street last May, Steven Bigby, 22, of De Beauvoir Road, Islington, died from a wound to the heart.
He had been swinging a heavily buckled belt when Costa stabbed him.
The victim, “steeped in crime and gang culture” was with nine friends and Costa, out shopping with two pals, felt his life was in danger, said Icah Peart, QC defending.
At the time Bigby was on bail awaiting trial with three others who were later convicted of the horrific gang rape of a girl, 16, at a house in Tottenham.
She was doused with caustic soda to “get rid of DNA”.
Costa and Bigby were strangers. Costa was cleared of murder after maintaining that the stabbing was an accident when he was accused of “eyeballing” Bigby.
Prosecutor Jeremy Donne, QC, told the court: “This is just another tragic example of terrible, unnecessary knife crime that has become a cancer in our cities.”
Costa, with criminal convictions for three robberies, “had the advantage of a hard-working family” to support him, said Judge Hawkins. He was being
sentenced on the basis of having “no intention to kill”.
Judge Hawkins added: “Whatever the background of the man who died, he was also loved.” |
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