|
|
 |
| |
Ben Kinsella |
‘I SAW THEM KILL BEN IN THE STREET’
Girl witness describes how attackers circled round Ben Kinsella
A GIRL took to the witness stand at the Old Bailey yesterday afternoon (Thursday) and identified one of Ben Kinsella’s alleged killers.
The teenager, whose full name was withheld from the court for her own safety, told how she lay cowering in the shadows behind a car and watched Jade Braithwaite, 20, kick the Holloway School pupil to the ground.
She said Mr Braithwaite, who denies murder, confronted Ben, 16, with two others in North Road, Holloway, before “circling” around him.
Speaking from behind a thick green curtain, she said: “I saw them walking past us and I turned and stared at him. Then we ran for it. Ben was at the back. He stopped between a van and a car and they caught up with him.
“He said: ‘Why are you coming over to me? I haven’t done anything.’ The taller one kicked him in the belly – and then they bent over him. It was Jade. I thought they were punching him.”
The 17-year-old broke down in floods of tears as she added: “He was tiny – as soon as they pushed him he went over. They killed him – they are animals.”
Ben Kinsella died after being knifed 11 times at about 2am after a night out with friends in Shillibeers Bar, in North Road, Holloway.
The 16-year-old staggered a few steps to the junction of North Road and York Way, where he died in the arms of a friend.
Yesterday (Thursday) the court was shown CCTV images of three boys chasing Ben and about eight other friends up North Road. Ben had been in the bar with friends but was not involved in any of the violent scenes the court heard provoked the revenge attack. “He was entirely blameless,” said prosecutor Nicholas Hilliard QC.
Friends of Ben Kinsella have been giving evidence in court 10 of the Old Bailey since Tuesday.
Mr Braithwaite’s defence barrister, Orlando Pownall QC, has attempted to discredit the witnesses by showing inconsistencies in their evidence.
He said that, although Mr Braithwaite was involved in fights outside Shillibeers and admits confronting Ben, there was no evidence he had stabbed the teenager later on that night.
Addressing the teenage girl giving evidence, Mr Pownall said: “When you were called to an identification procedure by police you were shown nine photographs. You picked out a member of the public who had nothing to do with the incident.”
She replied: “I was confused and they all looked the same to me. Now I have put two and two together. I remember now that it was the boy I saw in Shillibeers.”
Ben’s family sat in court as a jury heard accounts of his final moments and watched film of him being attacked. The victim’s sister, EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, was joined by their father and mother, George, 48, and Deborah, 46, as the Crown’s case was outlined.
Mr Hilliard told the jury of four women and eight men that Ben was innocently caught up in a bar room brawl when he was out with mates celebrating the end of their GCSE exams last summer.
“Nobody suggests that Ben was involved in any of this. This was not a war zone far away. This was Islington. Ben’s name is added to a long list of those killed by knives,” said the QC.
Michael Alleyne, 18, from Holloway, Jade Braithwaite, 20, from Bow, and Juress Kikka, 19, deny murdering Ben on Sunday, June 29. Their full addresses and occupations have not been disclosed. Each is represented by a senior QC and the trial is likely to run until mid-June.
The court heard that at a remand hearing they were secretly filmed in a custody vehicle and their conversations, in which they are alleged to have talked about the attack, were recorded.
Trouble flared in the early hours at Shillibeers Bar when one of Ben’s friends, Alfie, became involved in a dispute with another customer, the court heard.
The jury was told Mr Braithwaite stepped in and allegedly boasted: “I’ve got my tool on me and it will open you up.”
In the street minutes later Mr Braithwaite fled when confronted after being targeted by a hail of bottles thrown by friends of Ben from inside the bar.
But he soon returned with two accomplices. He knew his “reputation was at stake,” it was claimed.
Ben was at the back of a group being chased “and he was the one that was caught,” said Mr Hilliard.
“They launched a lethal attack on him in which a total of 11 stab wounds were inflicted. One was to the heart and delivered with such force that it caused splitting to the bone of the left rib,” he added.
The victim was taken to Whittington Hospital in Archway, where he was later pronounced dead. “There was no surviving an attack of this kind,” Mr Hilliard told the court.
The trial continues. |
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
