‘I had no reason to assault him, I cared about him’ says alleged murderer

A youth worker who was stabbed to death by a gang of armed men protected one of his alleged attackers against bullies when they were at school together, a court heard.

Neron Quartey, 20, ploughed a stolen black Honda Civic into 22-year-old Kwabena Nelson’s car of the same make on Kemble Road, Tottenham, on 3 February this year, it is alleged.

Quartey leaped out of the stolen vehicle along with several other men and the gang viciously assaulted Mr Nelson with knives and other weapons in a ‘savage’ and ‘animalistic’ attack, jurors were told.

Mr Nelson had been suffering from a medical condition that caused him pain in his legs and joints, as well as affecting his mobility.

Quartey told the Old Bailey that he would not have assaulted Nelson because he ‘cared’ about him after the older boy ‘stuck up for him’ when he was being bullied at school.

He said he drove into Mr Nelson’s car by accident and was in a daze during the attack, so he did not get out of the car until it was over.

‘I had no reason to assault him. I cared about him,’ Quartey said.

‘I wasn’t involved in the murder. I felt dazed and felt unconscious for about 20-30 seconds, I’m not sure.

‘Afterwards, I got out of the car and I ran away in a different direction.

‘I was worried if the police turned up I was going to be arrested because I had been smoking weed.’

Prosecutor Simon Mayo QC told the court the collision between the vehicles ‘was not, it seems, an accident’.

Three unnamed witnesses all told the court that that they saw the driver get out of the car with the other men.

One told the court that the gang launched themselves at Mr Nelson, saying: ‘It was not in a controlled manner. It was pure violence. It was inhuman. It was animalistic. It was savage. It was all of the men who were involved in this savageness.’

Mr Mayo asked the defendant: ‘Who were the other men in the car?

‘You say that Nelson was friend of yours, that you cared about him. So don’t you think that Nelson’s mother has a right to know who killed her son?’

He replied: ‘I am not prepared to say. I know their nick-names but I don’t know who they are.’

After the attack, Mr Nelson managed to call 999 and made his way to a nearby house where he knocked on the door to ask for help, the court heard.

The occupants of the house called the emergency services and Nelson managed to make one final call to his brother’s partner to tell her that he had been stabbed.

Mr Mayo said: ‘She and Nelson’s brother rushed to the scene where they found him seriously injured.

‘He was clearly close to death by that point.’

Mr Nelson died at the scene from multiple stab wounds, after police and paramedics were called to St Mary’s Close at around 1.28am.

‘Despite the best efforts of doctors and paramedics from the helicopter emergency medical services, his life could not be saved,’ Mr Mayo added.

Quartey, of Station Road, Wood Green, denies murder.

The trial continues.

Ends.