HENRY:PALS OF MURDERED TEEN THOUGHT GUNSHOTS WERE FIRWORKS

Friends of a teenager shot dead outside a derelict house thought the gunshots were fireworks being let off, the Old Bailey heard today (Mon).

Marvin Henry, 17, was gunned down as he ran for cover after coming under attack from a rival gang of youths on October 27 last year.

The murder was the ‘culmination of a feud’ between Marvin and 20-year-old Shervin Irvani for several months.

Irvani had sought revenge after being humiliated by Henry outside a party at a Finchley nightclub where he had been dumped in a bin and pushed down the road.

Edwin Eribo, 18, told the court he had been with a group of friends including Marvin ‘talking and joking’ on the night of his death.

They were in an upstairs bedroom of a deserted house in Kerry Road on the Inglis Barracks housing estate, a former RAF base being demolished for redevelopment, in Mill Hill, north London, smoking cannabis when one of them spotted another group of youths outside.

‘We headed straight for the back door,’ he said.

‘Everyone was huddled up by the alleyway (outside the house).

‘I could hear something like shots. Someone said that they were fireworks.

‘Then another shot came in and something ricocheted off the wall and someone said “there’s dust in my eyes”.

‘Everyone agreed to start running down the alleyway.’

Mr Eribo told the court his group split, with some boys running to his nearby back garden.

Marvin and two others ran towards a field at the back of the houses and Mr Eribo remained in the alley.

It was from this position, he told jurors, that he saw the gunman open fire again.

‘I saw a blacked out individual, he was wearing all black, waving his hands about towards the field,’ he said.

‘I saw a spark and I heard a bang. I remember it going off once.’

Mr Eribo stayed in the alleyway, but then heard one of his friends screaming for help.

He added: ‘I saw Marvin on the floor.’

The court has heard Marvin was hit in the chest and died in the early hours after being rushed to hospital.

Prosecutors allege he was targeted by rival youths after ‘denting the ego’ of former friend Irvani in a previous confrontation.

In an attempt to ‘get even’ he and others kidnapped Marvin’s 17-year-old friend and subjected him to a beating in an empty north London flat on October 9 last year

They wanted the youth to trick Marvin in to coming to the flat, but the plan failed.

Irvani, from St Albans, Herts, denies murder, false imprisonment and inflicting grievous bodily harm.

He is on trial with Rafik Hamaizia, 18, of North Hill, Highgate, north London; and Ithai McPhee, 21, of Abbots Road, Edgware, north London; and Rory Faley, 21, of (20) Budd Close, Finchley, north London.

All three deny murder and wounding with intent.

Hamaizia and McPhee have admitted false imprisonment, but Faley denies the charge.

The trial continues.

ENDS