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Ben Kinsella |
‘We’re going to kill one of your boys’
Murder trial witness tells of youth’s warning:
A FRIEND of stabbing victim Ben Kinsella has told the Old Bailey how one of his alleged murderers bragged that someone was going to die that night.
Ben, a 16-year-old Holloway School pupil, was knifed 11 times in June last year at the junction of York Way and North Road, Holloway.
Three accused, Michael Alleyne, 18, from Holloway, Jade Braithwaite, 20, from Bow, and Juress Kikka, 19, from Upper Holloway, deny murder.
Yesterday (Thursday), the jury of eight women and four men were given the day off because Common Serjeant of London Judge Brian Barker had civic duties.
The court heard on Wednesday afternoon from one of Ben’s friends, Chloe, 18, who gave evidence from behind a green velvet screen shielding her from the dock. Prosecutor Nicholas Hilliard has encouraged witnesses only to use Christian names, to protect their identities.
Chloe told the court she was confronted by a group of boys coming back from the junction of York Way and North Road shortly after 2am. She said one of them stopped and said “We’re going to kill one of your boys tonight.”
At this point Ben, the brother of former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, had already been chased, trapped and stabbed. He died hours later in Whittington Hospital, Archway.
Chloe said the boy who spoke seemed agitated and disappeared into Tamworth House estate. Chloe and her friends continued up North Road where she saw Ben on the ground. “It was then I knew something dreadful had happened,” she said.
Chloe told the jury she knew Ben and had met him that night in Shillibeers bar.
Trouble flared inside after a boy wearing a yellow t-shirt confronted Alfie, one of Ben’s friends, at the bar.
“There was a scuffle and I went outside and Ben followed,” she said. She saw other friends of Ben’s “wading in” and the boy wearing a yellow t-shirt was on the ground.
There is no suggestion Ben was involved in the fighting. He has been described by Mr Hilliard as “totally blameless”.
On Tuesday, another friend, Danny, told the court how three boys had chased Ben and his friends up the street. He said: “I was scared.” Sixty-five CCTV cameras recorded what happened.
Speaking via video link, and with his face hidden, Danny said: “Ben was in a group of five or six in front of me. A light-skinned black youth came up to me and gave me a dirty look. He called me a pussy and snatched my glasses from my head.” One of Danny’s friends phoned Ben’s group ahead to warn that they were being followed.
The victim’s sister, her father George, 48, and mother Deborah, 46, have been in court daily, listening to the harrowing evidence. Ms Kinsella had earlier been led away from court 10 in tears as she heard another of her brother’s friends, Michael, giving evidence.
The trial, expected to run into June, continues. |
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