THERE WAS UPROAR IN AT THE OLD BAILEY ON THURSDAY

THERE WAS UPROAR IN AT THE OLD BAILEY ON THURSDAY WHEN

BATTERSEA TEENAGER LESLIE CRABBE WAS ACQUITTED OF MURDER.

ANGRY RELATIVES OF GEORGE DANSO, 16, WHO WAS STABBED

IN THE BACK, WERE EJECTED FROM THE COURT WHEN CRABBE WAS

JAILED FOR FIVE YEARS FOR MANSLAUGHTER.

THEY SHOUTED ABUSE AND A WOMAN WAS LED SOBBING FROM THE COURT

AFTER MR JUSTICE SIMON BROWN CALLED THE KILLING ‘A TRAGEDY’.

EARLIER CRABBE TOLD THE JURY HE HAD STRUCK OUT AT THE YOUTH

IN SELF DEFENCE.

HE INSISTED THAT DANSO CHASED HIM AND IT WAS ONLY

WHEN DANSO SWUNG AT HIM WITH HIS KNIFE THAT HE ‘REACTED’ AND STABBED

HIM.

MR TIMOTHY CASSELL, PROSECUTING, SAID THERE HAD BEEN A

SERIES OF ARGUMENTS BETWEEN THE TWO TEENAGERS WHICH LED TO THE FINAL

CONFRONTATION ON AUGUST 14 LAST YEAR OUTSIDE THE SURREY LANE ESTATE’S

YOUTH CENTRE.

THE JURY WAS TOLD THAT AFTER THE STABBING DANSO STAGGERED TO

GARDNER HOUSE TOWER BLOCK WHERE HE COLLAPSED STILL CLUTCHING HIS OWN

KNIFE.

CRABBE, WHO CARRIED A LEATHAL LOCK-KNIFE – CALLED AN ‘007’ –

RAN AWAY AFTER THE CLASH BUT WAS ARRESTED A SHORT TIME LATER.

WHEN POLICE ARRIVED THEY FOUND A CROWD OF 40 PEOPLE OUTSIDE

THE BUILDING WHERE THE STABBING OCCURRED.

DANSO, WHO ALSO LIVED ON

THE ESTATE, WAS LYING IN A POOL OF BLOOD AND COVERED WITH A BLANKET.

HE DIED IN HOSPITAL TWO HOURS LATER.

THE STAB WOUND HAD

PENETRATED HIS LUNG.

‘IT WOULD HAVE NEEDED A VERY HARD THRUST TO CAUSE THAT INJURY

AND THERE IS NO DISPUTE THAT IT WAS CAUSED BY LESLIE CRABBE’, SAID MR

CASSELL.

CRABBE, UNEMPLOYED, OF GARDNER HOUSE, HAD DENIED MURDER.

ENDS.