Accused machete chopper says he wore latex gloves ‘because my mum’s strict about Covid’

A teenager accused of machete chopping a rival’s arm with a machete claimed he wore latex gloves that day because his mum was ‘strict’ about Covid.

Ruben Darame, 18, shouted ‘help, help, I’ve been stabbed’ at an arriving ambulance minutes after Daniel Obidi was seriously injured with a machete-type knife in Kennington, south London on 14 June last year.

A vicious knife fight between two teens in broad daylight on a residential street was captured from multiple angles on CCTV, jurors at Inner London Crown Court heard.

Darame denies carrying a weapon that day and claims he was attacked by someone wearing ‘all black’.

He is accused of riding a Boris bike at the teen and brandishing a large machete with a balaclava over his face

The neighbours’ videos show one male, said to be Darame, jumping off his bike before the two males simultaneously stab at each other.

Darame sustained injuries to his chest and arm from a shorter knife and is accused of ‘chopping’ Obidi’s upper arm.

Judge Silas Reid said: ‘The prosecution say the defendant rode at him on a bike, ran towards him and swung the machete.

‘The defendant’s case is that he is the victim himself, that he did not have a machete at any point, he did not swing at Mr Obidi and so he is innocent.’

The ambulance paramedic who treated Darame at the scene cut the balaclava from his face and collected a pair of tracksuit bottoms with a white rectangle on one leg.

The prosecution say the white rectangle is identical to that worn by the man with the machete.

Giving evidence in a Muslim skullcap and long robe Durame said the white rectangle could be a ‘flash of light’ in the ‘blazing sun’.

But after viewing CCTV from another angle he accepted he could see a white rectangle on the trousers.

He then suggested the design of tracksuit was ‘bait,’ which he claimed means popular.

A video of four men running away did not show anyone with a white rectangle on their trousers, allegedly because Durame was that person and was taken into an ambulance

Aneurin Brewer, prosecuting, said: ‘You were wearing a black latex gloves, you weren’t wearing a mask that day, so you weren’t worried about Covid.

‘So why were you wearing gloves?’

With a facemask under his chin, Durame said: ‘I don’t’ really wear a mask to be honest.

‘Why are you wearing one today?

‘It’s getting more serious now, then it was June.

‘My mother was really strict about wearing gloves to be honest.’

Darame suggested the paramedic’s statement about cutting a balaclava from his face was untrue because it wasn’t kept for evidence.

He refused to give any details to the paramedic except his first name, jurors heard.

In December 2018 Durame was caught with a bladed article outside the O2 in Greenwich after a group he was with began smoking cannabis and making noise while watching Jumanji.

Durame, of Loughborough Street, Kennington, denies GBH and possession of a machete.

The trial continues.

ends