LANSIQUOT: MURDER SUSPECT CLAIMS ARMED MEN KILLED FRIEND IN FLAT STABBING

A murder suspect told the Old Bailey today (Weds) how he saw two balaclava-clad men stab his friend to death.

Charles Lansiquot, 41, claims he was held at gunpoint while Ibrahim Kledat was knifed and said he was then forced to clean up the bloody scene.

Prosecutors claim he stabbed the 54-year-old crack cocaine ‘runner’ at Mr Kledat’s flat in Lugard House, Bloemfontein Road, Shepherds Bush, west London on October 20 last year.

But giving evidence Lansiquot told jurors he had to flee the scene in just his boxer shorts and socks after being made to hand over his clothes to the mystery killers.

Mr Kledat was found lying face down on the living room floor of his home at 8am after a fire was started at the scene.

Lansiquot told the court he had been at Mr Kledat’s flat when the two armed men forced their way.

He said he could see ‘a lot of hand and arm movements’ as the victim was stabbed.

Mr Kledat, known as ‘Abs’, repeatedly called out to Lansiquot for help but he told the court he was powerless as he had a gun to his head.

‘I was quite fearful,’ he said. ‘I was looking down the barrel of a gun. I was petrified, I didn’t want to move.

‘He (the gunman) told me not to f***ing move. I didn’t say a word.

‘Abs went down and the person was still continuously stabbing down at Abs.’

Lansiquot told the court he was then forced to ‘clean up the mess’.

‘I feared disobeying their orders,’ he said. ‘I walked in to the corridor and I grabbed a cloth.

‘As I was cleaning up the blood off the walls, the door and the floor, I was using the bath water to rinse the towel and go back and clean the blood.’

He said he was left with blood ‘all over’ his clothes and then forced to leave the property.

In the stairwell he was told to strip to his underwear and give his clothes to the two men.

Once he was free to go, he ran back to his family home in nearby (3) Bathurst House.

The court has heard he walked in to Shepherds Bush police station at 12.22am and claimed to have witnessed a murder, telling the officer at the front desk: ‘I saw someone stabbed this morning. I was there.’

Detectives arrested him on suspicion of murder because they were unhappy with his ‘disjointed account’.

Prosecutor Rebecca Poulet QC has told jurors Lansiquot ‘invented these two assailants in an attempt to cover up his own responsibility for the killing.’

Police inquiries revealed heavy-drinking Lansiquot was a regular visitor at Mr Kledat’s flat to pick up crack cocaine.

Lansiquot, of Bathurst House in the White City Estate, Shepherds Bush, denies murder and perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.

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