MCPHEE:CANNABIS DEALER DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN GANG SHOOTING OF TEENAGER
A cannabis dealer accused of taking part in the gang shooting of a teenager told a jury: ‘I wasn’t there, I had nothing to do with it.’
Ithai McPhee, 21, is said to have been part of a group of young men who went looking for 17-year-old Marvin Henry on a north London housing estate.
He was shot dead as he ran for cover from a derelict house in the early hours of October 27 last year.
McPhee is on trial for murder with 20-year-old Shervin Irvani, Rafik Hamaizia, 18, and Rory Faley, 21.
The Old Bailey has heard the killing was the ‘culmination of a feud’ between Marvin and Irvani which had been running for several months.
McPhee told the court he was known cannabis dealer in north London and only a week before the shooting had been arrested in connection with dealing 17 ounces of weed, worth £4,000.
He was also on a 16-month licence having only been released from a prison term in May last year, jurors heard.
But McPhee said he was not one of the group who shot dead Marvin in Kerry Road on the Inglis Barracks housing estate, a former RAF base being demolished for redevelopment, in Mill Hill.
He had been staying at his friend Faley’s family home in Budd Close, Finchley, at the time of the incident and found out about the killing the following morning.
He received a text message, which read: ‘RIP Marvin Henry.’
Asked what his reaction was, he told the court: ‘Really, really shocked.’
He said people were coming up with ‘all different sorts of stories’ about what had happened and the names of who was involved.
McPhee, who used the name Leon when dealing, said he became aware people had been arrested.
The following day, October 28, he went to Colindale police station in order to collect a mobile phone which had been taken from him when he was previously arrested.
But after identifying himself McPhee was arrested on suspicion of Marvin’s murder.
‘I was shocked’, he said. ‘I was thinking “sh** I’m going back to jail” because I had been arrested. My probation officer was going to find out I’d been arrested this many times while I’d been on licence.’
‘Were you expecting to get arrested for murder,’ asked his barrister James Scobie QC.
‘No way,’ he said.
McPhee admitted he had lied in a police interview when he claimed he had been at Faley’s home on the night of the shooting and suggested he, his mother and his sister could act as alibis for him.
‘I’m not going to admit I was dealing drugs that night because of my licence and my bail,’ he added.
‘I had nothing to do with the murder. I wasn’t there. I had nothing to do with it.’
Mr Scobie asked: ‘What were you anticipating would happen after you gave those answers.’
‘That I would be released,’ said McPhee. ‘Because I had nothing to do with it.’
‘Is that the truth?’ asked the barrister.
‘Yes it’s the truth.’
McPhee told the court Marvin was himself a dealer who used ‘youngers’ to help him sell drugs.
He was also linked to the Thug Fam (TF) and 300 Block gangs and had previously been affiliated with the Stick’em Up Kids (SUK).
McPhee also admitted his involvement in an attack on Marvin’s 17-year-old friend, who was subjected to a beating in an empty north London flat on October 9 last year
He said he would have prevented the teenager from leaving if he had tried to escape, but denied the incident had anything to do with a feud with Marvin and suggested it was linked to a large sum of money taken in a house burglary.
McPhee, of Abbots Road, Edgware; Hamaizia, 18, of North Hill, Highgate, north London; and Rory Faley, 21, of (20) Budd Close, Finchley, north London, all deny murder and wounding with intent.
Irvani, from St Albans, Herts, denies murder, false imprisonment and inflicting grievous bodily harm.
Hamaizia and McPhee have admitted false imprisonment, but Faley denies the charge.
The trial continues.
ENDS
