The boyfriend of Jodie Chesney, who died after being stabbed in the back in an east London park, told a court today the couple had been “chilling out as usual” when she was attacked.
Girl scout Jodie, 17, was with a group of friends and boyfriend Eddie Coyle in Amy’s Park in Harold Hill when she was attacked by two figures who emerged out of the darkness on the evening of March 1.
Jurors have heard she was unlikely to have been the intended target of the knife attack, which could have stemmed from one of her friends buying cannabis from a new dealer.
Manuel Petrovic, 20, Svenson Ong-a-Kwie, 19, both of Romford, and two boys, aged 16 and 17, are on trial at the Old Bailey, accused of Jodie’s murder.
Mr Coyle, 18, gave evidence from behind a screen. He said: “We met at Romford station at 5pm. We were about to sit there, chill out and listen to music, and have a couple of fags — the usual. We had a joint. We had only just started smoking it and were not affected by it.”
Mr Coyle demonstrated in the witness box how the killer swung his right arm up to shoulder height to stab Jodie.
“I saw something small and dark. I thought he was going to punch her,” he said. “The taller one stabbed Jodie in the back. She was in shock at first — she didn’t know what had happened, she just started screaming. She screamed continuously, very loudly for about two minutes straight.
“The guys ran off. I was trying to catch Jodie who was falling off the bench.”
The court has heard Mr Coyle cradled her and tried to keep her conscious as they waited for the emergency services.
It has been alleged that Petrovic and Ong-a-Kwie were selling drugs together, while the 16-year-old defendant acted as a “runner” for Mr Petrovic and the 17-year-old was helping Mr Ong-a-Kwie sell drugs that day. The group were peddling a new batch of drugs labelled “pineapple express”, the court heard.
On the day of the stabbing, one of Jodie’s friends had unsuccessfully tried to buy £20 of pineapple express from Ong-a-Kwie and turned to another local dealer instead. Petrovic, Ong-a-Kwie and the two boys, who cannot be named, deny murder. The trial continues.
