The ‘Instagram bounty’ on the killer’s head
A 16-year-old boy told a court he stabbed another teenager to death fearing he would be would be murdered in an ‘Instagram bounty’.
The teenager allegedly killed 16-year-old Charlie Kutyauripo in a park in Woodford, east London in January, months after they had ‘verbals’ on social media.
He claims Charlie, whose full name is Munashe Charles Kutyauripo, was a member of a gang whose other members had beaten him up twice.
The boy told jurors he saw pictures of Charlie ‘putting gang signs up’ on social media and got scared when he threatened to ‘smoke’ him in an Instagram message posted in November 2015.
‘It was a picture of me. It was basically a bounty on me,’ the teenager said.
The boy ‘launched’ himself at Charlie with a knife because he ‘thought he was armed’ after they had an argument outside a girl’s party at Woodford Social Club.
Describing the moments leading up to Charlie’s death, he said: ‘There was verbals and I asked him what’s the angle?
‘And then he said yeah there’s an angle. We just gave each other verbal.’
Asked why he didn’t run away, he replied: ‘I don’t know, I just had to confront him.’
He told jurors they called each other ‘pussies’ but claimed he ‘walked away’ after Charlie pushed him three times.
He said Charlie began to follow him, adding: ‘He was following me and reaching for something.’
‘My mind just went paranoid and my heart just started to beat, he was giving me verbal, I didn’t know what the verbal was,’ said the boy.
‘He did something with his waist, his trousers, his waist. I thought he was armed.’
He continued: ‘I just reacted. I pulled out my knife and rushed, launched myself against him.’
Oliver Saxby QC, defending, said: ‘You struck him and he goes back and then there was a second stab wound and we can probably tell, can’t we, that you went for him again and followed him a few paces, maybe a few more… and then ran off.’
He continued:’It is going to be suggested no doubt, why not get the knife out and say: ‘I have got a knife, go away’?’
The teenager, who told jurors he had carried other knives from his kitchen on two occasions, answered: ‘I was thinking about other stuff completely.’
He managed to evade capture for three weeks after dumping the kitchen knife on the ground after the attack and fleeing to a friend’s house to change clothes.
The blade, taken from his kitchen, had his DNA on the handle and Charlie’s blood on the blade.
He originally gave a fake name when police arrested him in Margate on 2 February, but they discovered he was wanted on suspicion of murder later that day.
When Judge Paul Worsley QC asked him why he didn’t come back to London, he replied: ‘Because now there was more of a reason for the [gang] boys to get me.’
Mr Saxby had earlier asked him why he didn’t go to the police about the gang that had attacked him on two occasions, to which he replied: ‘I just don’t like talking to the police and stuff.’
He said started carrying knives because: ‘I didn’t feel safe going out of the area, because people were after me, the [gang] boys.
‘They did robberies, like robberies and stuff.’
Mr Saxby said: ‘Charlie posted a message on his Instagram account stating words to the effect of ‘who has seen [you]’ followed by angry face icons.
Describing the message he said: ‘Basically he said if you see him smoke him. Then I knew the situation was serious and I got quite scared.’
When asked how he came to realise Charlie was a gang member, he said: ‘There was lots of pictures of Instagram. It was pictures of all of them. They tag each other’s names.
‘Charlie was taking pictures with them pulling gang signs.’
He added: ‘When I used to walk around and I used to bump into people they would say Charlie’s onto you.’
The court heard the victim had convictions for robbery and assault and both he and his alleged murderer had previously been excluded from school for fighting.
The youth, from Ilford in east London, denies murder.
The trial continues
Ends
