‘Gloating gang killed him after posing with murder weapons’

Four teenagers made a video with the knives they had bought online a day before they used them to murder a teenager in a ‘savage and sustained’ attack, the Old Bailey heard.

Denardo Samuels-Brook, 17, died after being chased down and stabbed in the chest in Streatham, southwest London, on June 10 last year, it is said.

Denzel Kwateng, Andre Headley, Umar Salami, all 19, Jonathan Blake, 18, all deny his murder.

Denardo’s friend O’Cean Thompson-Stewart, 18, was also injured during the ‘brutal’ attack, the court heard.

After the killing the gang were caught on CCTV celebrating in the street, jurors heard.

Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow, QC, said: ‘On the afternoon of 10 June 2021, violence flared up between two groups of young men on a street in Streatham

‘Violence that saw both sides produce knives that they had concealed in their clothing or bags, violence that saw both sides use their deadly weapons to inflict serious injury to those they regarded as the opposition.

‘Violence that saw the two losers chased down the street with one of them, Denardo Samuels-Brook, fatally injured and his companion, O’Cean Thompson-Stewart, having sustained minor injuries from the knives that were used against them.

‘Violence that saw the four winners escape to the address from which they had come where two of them Denzel Kwateng and Andre Headley had to tend to wounds they had sustained from the knives that had been used against them.

‘It was violence that now finds these four defendants in this court facing an allegation of murder.

‘What actually lay behind that violence may never be known with any certainty — after all the victim who lost his life cannot give any explanation.’

‘But what is known is what these four defendants did because the violence they used was recorded by CCTV cameras.

‘They can be seen to strike and stab the deceased and his friend with the weapons in their hands, to chase them when they tried to escape, to continue to attack the deceased despite the fact that he posed them no threat at all to them and then they can be seen to walk away as if nothing had happened.’

‘There is nothing we suggest that these defendants can say to excuse the brutal and murderous violence they used.

‘Any effort to blame the deceased for what happened to him and his friend simply ignores the savage and relentless nature of the attack to which they were subjected.’

‘Each of the defendants had chosen to arm himself with an enormous knife.

‘Each of them had willingly joined in a confrontation between their group and the deceased and his friend.

‘Each of them would have known that the deceased and his friend were likely to be armed in the same way.

‘Each of them was ready to use his weapon as soon they thought it necessary to do so, and once their weapons were drawn each of them used them to attack or to attempt to attack the deceased and his friend.’

At least eight of the ‘terrifying’ knives had recently been purchased online and shipped to Headley’s address at Prentis Road, Streatham.

On the day before the attack, the gang gathered at Headley’s house and took pictures and video of themselves playing with and showing off the knives.

The next afternoon, Headley and Salami spotted Denardo and O’Cean in a taxi travelling along the main street.

Both teenagers got out of the car and followed Headley and Salami, who had already alerted Blake and Kwateng what was happening, into a side street.

The two groups, with each person armed with a knife, then squared off unaware they were in full view of CCTV cameras.

‘Whatever led to those weapons being produced is unclear, but O’cean Thompson Stewart suddenly withdrew his knife and all four of the defendants did the same thing,’ said Mr Glasgow.

After a brief confrontation involving brandishing knives, Denanardo and O’cean ran off but the other four immediately gave chase, the court heard.

‘Denardo Samuels-Brook and O’Cean Thompson-Stewart ran along the street and turned into a side road, but the defendants continued to chase them and to try to attack them.

‘Denardo Samuels-Brook was all too aware of the danger behind him and he turned to face his pursuers as he tried to back away.

‘He narrowly missed being stabbed Mr Headley’s blade, and Mr Salami also swung and missed, but he was unable to avoid Mr Kwateng’s knife which was plunged into his chest,’ said Mr Glasgow.

O’Cean dragged his friend away from the attackers, but got only a few feet down the road before Denardo collapsed to the group, it is said.

The four attackers then allegedly goaded the obviously badly injured teenager before turning away and running off.

The knife that Denardo had been stabbed with had gone 23cm into his chest and penetrated his lung, liver and heart.

Jurors were told that although Kawrteng plunging his knife into Denardo’s chest, all four defendants claimed they were acting in self-defence.

‘The key question for each of them is likely to be whether or not you are sure that they were not acting in self defence when they inflicted the injuries that they did to the deceased,’ he added.

‘You will want to ask yourselves why the footage shows these defendants chasing the deceased and his friend along the street when they no longer posed any danger to them.

‘You will want to ask yourselves why the footage shows these defendants carrying out a merciless attack upon the deceased who was trying to back away from them and their knives.

‘And you will want to ask yourselves why the footage shows these defendants appearing to celebrate in the harm that they had inflicted.

‘The simple answer is that the defendants were recorded doing what they did because they were the aggressors and because they wanted to cause as much harm as they could to the deceased.’

Kwanteg, of New Addington, Headley, of Streatham, Salami and Blake, both of Croydon, all deny murder.

The trial continues.