Change language
Actions
Displays
Remove from selection
Add to selection
Abstract

A MAN who stabbed a teenager in the neck in a quiet Holloway courtyard has described the moment he lunged at his victim with a knife.

Uche Ejimonye, who is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of murder, admits attacking 17-year-old Vasi­laki Kakko – known as Vaso – with a knife, but said he was acting in self-defence.

The 20-year-old told the court he had a long-standing dispute with Vaso who, he said, had stabbed him in the weeks before his death.

The court heard that Mr Ejimonye, of Roth Walk, Holloway, had come to Caledonian Road on November 23 last year to buy cannabis, “for onward sale”, from a mutual friend of his and Vaso’s.

But he said that when he arrived he bumped into Vaso, from Newington Green, and an argument began. Mr Ejimonye said: “He noticed me. He pulled out his knife. So then as he pulled out his knife, I pulled out my knife.

“He is telling me to come to the back road. I’m saying: ‘You think you’re bad. If you want to do this we can get it over and done with now’.”

The pair were joined by mutual friends, who attempted to defuse the argument, Mr Ejimonye said. The group of five then made their way towards Yoke Close, on the Shearling Way estate, with Vaso and Ejimonye continuing to argue on the way, the court heard.

Mr Ejimonye said: “The argument was really going round and round in circles, calling names. It was back and forth.”

After the group arrived in Yoke Place the argument between the pair simmered down, Mr Ejimonye said, and they were eventually left alone.

He said: “The one person who was going to stop anything happening between me and Vaso had now left. I felt right now that Vaso was unpredictable in what he was next going to do.

“He started to reach for where he put his knife. I felt like I had to do whatever I had to do to prevent him from stabbing me. I felt that I had to get at him first. I went for my knife.

“I took it out and put it to his face. I just wanted to try and slice him first before he tried to stab me. It was just an instant reaction. It was the first thing I saw.”

Defence counsel David Aaronberg QC asked: “Were you intending to kill him?” Mr Ejimonye replied: “Not at all. Never.”

Asked about a second stab wound that Vaso suffered, Mr Ejimonye said: “I didn’t even know I had stabbed him in the back. I didn’t even believe it at first when they said he got stabbed twice because I didn’t even remember it at all.”

Mr Ejimomye then fled the scene, the court heard, and disposed of the knife in a bin. It has never been recovered.

He told the court he did not believe he had seriously injured Vaso, adding: “I didn’t think it was serious, like anyone had died.” The knife attack severed Vaso’s jugular and carotid artery. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The trial continues.