A teenager was stabbed to death with a “Rambo-style” knife at a girl’s party that had spiralled out of control in southeast London last year, a court has heard.
Leoandro Osemeke was one of up to 200 young people who went to the home of a 16-year-old girl in Peckham on 5 August. Within 25 seconds of arriving, Leoandro, 16, was stabbed twice in the chest, the court heard. One wound penetrated his heart.
He had been due to give evidence at the trial of three teenagers who were later convicted of the manslaughter of 17-year-old Myron Yarde. Leoandro and Myron, both young grime MCs, were close friends.
A 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is on trial at the Old Bailey charged with the murder of Leoandro, who performed under the pseudonym Showkey.
Opening the trial, the prosecutor Lisa Wilding QC told jurors: “You will be familiar with the phrase ‘the invite went viral’. The party became noisy and was spilling out of Colgrove Road and into driveways, and local residents made calls to the police about disturbances being caused generally by the party.”
The 15-year-old defendant, who knew Leoandro, was already there when the victim arrived with his older brother and two friends.
As Leoandro entered the hallway, someone approached him and said “yeah” as if to say “you’re brave, coming here”, the court heard. According to the prosecution, the defendant then took a “Rambo-style knife” from his waistband, raised his arm and stabbed Leoandro.
Wilding told jurors that witnesses said neither Leoandro nor his friends had anything in their hands at the time. Emergency services performed heart surgery on the teenager at the scene but he was pronounced dead an hour later.
After the stabbing, the defendant acted calmly and told partygoers: “I did it, I did it,” the court heard. However, someone was heard to tell him to “duck out” and he left the party and returned to his south London home.
Upon arriving home, the defendant allegedly told a young relative he had just stabbed “that guy Showkey”. News of the death quickly spread and was being discussed on social media by the time the defendant got home.
Wilding told jurors: “There’s no doubt that [the defendant] caused the death of Showkey. The prosecution allege that he murdered him.
“These two blows were delivered with force and into the chest area. One of them pierced his heart,” she said. “[The defendant] accepts that he stabbed Showkey. Your task will be to decide whether in doing so he was acting in a situation in which it was or may have been necessary for him to defend himself, and if so whether he only used reasonable force in doing so.”
The youth denies murder and the trial continues.
