A dispute over a teddy bear led to a 15-year-old school girl being stabbed to death by a boy consumed with “white-hot anger”, a jury has heard.
Hassan Sentamu, now 18, denies the murder of Elianne Andam in Croydon last September.
The Old Bailey heard Elianne had gone with her friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to meet Sentamu. The friend and Sentamu had been in a relationship which had ended.
At the meeting they were supposed to swap personal possessions, the court heard, but when the friend handed a bag to her former boyfriend, who was wearing gloves and a mask and concealing a knife, he failed to hand over her items, including a teddy bear she wanted back.
The jury heard Elianne stood up for her friend, and that Sentamu then stabbed her in the neck.
Elianne was with the defendant’s ex-girlfriend and a group of other girls when she was killed during a prearranged meeting with him in Croydon town centre. Photograph: Mabel Banfield Nwachi/The Guardian
The prosecutor, Alex Chalk KC, said: “The purpose of the meeting was to exchange belongings. [The ex-girlfriend] in particular was anxious to recover her teddy bear.
“Elianne was aggrieved on her friend’s behalf. So, at around 8.30am whilst Hassan was walking outside the Whitgift Centre, Elianne took the plastic bag back.
“It was a gesture of solidarity with [her friend] that cost Elianne her life. The defendant chased after her, cornered her and used the kitchen knife to stab her repeatedly.
“He drove the knife 12cm into her neck, severing the carotid artery and causing injuries that were unsurvivable.
“Despite the rapid arrival of the emergency services and intensive efforts over the course of nearly an hour, Elianne died at the scene.”
The jury heard Sentamu may have felt “disrespected” by Elianne’s decision to stand up to him.
Chalk said: “Having heard the evidence, you may feel that the catalyst for this dreadful attack was rather more simple: anger.
Elianne Andam’s ‘gesture of solidarity’ with the defendant’s ex-girlfriend cost her her life, the court heard. Photograph: Metropolitan police/PA
“White-hot anger at having been disrespected in public by girls, both by Elianne on the day of the killing and previously.”
Sentamu, then aged 17, was arrested 90 minutes after the attack. Chalk said he did not deny wielding the knife and causing Elianne’s death in the face of overwhelming evidence against him.
The jury was told that Sentamu had pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but not guilty to murder on the basis that his responsibility was diminished having been diagnosed with autism in 2020.
He also claims he had a lawful reason for carrying a blade.
Chalk said: “His calculated decision to bring a knife to the scene meant that the consequences of that outburst for Elianne and her family were utterly devastating.”
Chalk said the victim was a popular schoolgirl. According to one of her friends, “‘Everybody loved Elianne’”, he said.
The court heard that the day before the killing, Sentamu had met the girls at the Whitgift Centre, and was “teased” by his ex-girlfriend who threw water on him.
One of the girls later joked that “tomorrow he would kill them all”, Chalk said. That evening Sentamu “brooded” about what had happened and allegedly told a friend: “Bro, I can’t let this slide.” The friend told him not to do anything “dumb” and ruin his life chances, the court heard.
A postmortem found Elianne had suffered four stab wounds with the one to her neck proving fatal.
The trial continues.
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