Accused of murdering this lorry driver

An alleged killer charged with murdering a Ukrainian lorry driver was remanded in custody.

Christopher Brownly-Otiede, 27, is accused of stabbing 45-year-old Vitali Skrypniak in the chest near Belvedere Station, southeast London, last 18 September.

Joel Smith, prosecuting, said: ‘This defendant is charged with a single count of murder.

‘The deceased had entered the country on the 15th of September driving his lorry and had parked his lorry in a carpark in the Abbey Wood area of London on 17 September.

‘The next day, the 18th of September…[Mr Skrypniak] went to the area around Belvedere Station.

He was later found ‘bleeding from his mouth having been stabbed in the chest’.

‘Efforts to treat him were in vain,’ Mr Smith continued.

‘He was declared dead there.’

A post-mortem examination revealed the cause of death to be the stab wound to the chest which was 12cm deep and penetrated the left lung.

Brownly-Otiede, of Sorrel Close, Thamesmead, was remanded in custody ahead of a plea and trial preparation hearing on 21 June.
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