CHINDAMO:MUGGING VICTIM WAS TOO SCARED TO TURN BACK ON ROBBERS
A cashpoint customer allegedly robbed by the murderer of head teacher Philip Lawrence was too terrified to turn his back on the muggers, a court heard today (Tues).
Learco Chindamo, 30, and two accomplices snatched £20 from David Sexton, four months after he was released from a life sentence for killing Mr Lawrence in 1995, it is claimed.
Jurors have heard how Chindamo used his infamy as a ‘badge of honour’ when he boasted how he had knifed Mr Lawrence, 48, to death outside his school in Maida Vale, northwest London, in 1995.
Chindamo, Gregory Jananto, 32, and Saeed Akhtar, 32, are said to have surrounded the 20-year-old and demanded ‘compensation’ from him after a perceived slight.
Blackfriars Crown Court has heard how Chindamo asked Mr Sexton: ‘Do you know who I am? Do you remember the head teacher in Maida Vale?’
Mr Sexton, then 19, later handed over a the note he had withdrawn from the cash machine outside a Sainsbury’s in Chalk Farm Road, Camden, north London.
He told the court that he was afraid to run from the trio because Jananto was wielding a bottle.
‘If someone is holding a bottle towards you, you don’t turn your back on them,’ he said.
‘I think I asked why I would need to pay compensation – I hadn’t done anything wrong – but they said I had said something to one of the group.’
Oliver Glasgow, prosecuting, asked him: ‘Had you said anything to one of the group?’
Sexton replied: ‘Not that I remember, no.
‘I felt a bit vulnerable – you don’t know who they are and you don’t know what to think.’
Chindamo was arrested after a passing motorist witnessed the alleged incident and recognising him as Philip Lawrence’s killer.
Officers used bank records to trace Mr Sexton, who told the court he had not reported the matter himself because ‘I didn’t want the night to finish like that.’
‘We had had a good night and I didn’t want to get involved,’ he said.
Security camera footage shows Chindamo, in a white jacket, gesticulating with his arms throughout the conversation with Mr Sexton.
Akhtar is seen apparently holding Chindamo back as he moves towards the alleged victim.
The trial was delayed earlier after a teenage work experience student approached a juror as she left the building at the end of the first day.
The student, who was on a placement with the probation service, later admitted having spoken to the juror but Judge Aiden Marron QC put it down to ‘stupidity rather than anything more sinister.’
Chindamo, living in Catford at the time, Akhtar, of Lavita House, Chalton Street, Kings Cross, northwest London, and Jananto, of Percy Road, Shepherd’s Bush, west London, all deny robbery.
The trial continues.
ends
