Schoolgirl Elianne Andam used her hand to try to defend herself after she was stabbed by her friend’s ex-boyfriend in a row over a teddy bear, the Old Bailey has heard.
The 15-year-old was attacked by Hassan Sentamu during a meeting outside the Whitgift shopping centre, and died at the scene despite desperate attempts to save her life.
Elianne’s friend had broken up with Sentamu ten days earlier, and the meeting was intended as an exchange of possession due to the end of the relationship.
But Sentamu, who had armed himself with a kitchen knife, did not bring his ex-girlfriend’s possessions – including her treasured teddy bear – to the meeting on September 27 last year.
The Old Bailey heard Elianne was laughing as she filmed herself on Snapchat moments before the attack, and grabbed hold of the Tesco bag “as a joke” – in solidarity with her slighted friend.
But her face turned to “abject terror” when Sentamu pulled out the knife, jurors have been told.
Her friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, tearfully described to police the events leading up to Elianne’s stabbing, in an interview played in court on Tuesday.
She said she handed over a Tesco carrier bag containing Sentamu’s clothes, and began asking “can I have my things please?”.
She said Sentamu claimed to have her possessions in he pocket of his Trapstar tracksuit, then said he had left the teddy bear at home, and at times he started to walk away.
“I knew something was wrong because he had on black gloves and a blue mask and one of his hands was in his pocket, like he had…gripping on to something”, she said.
“He went to his pocket, and I was looking because I was scared, because I thought he had something.”
The girl said she challenged Sentamu when he appeared to be laughing, and then he turned to her and said “look at you” in a derogatory fashion.
“I pushed his shoulder and I looked at him and I said ‘where are you going? Well, where’s my thing?’
“He was like ‘look, I don’t want to hurt you’ – I knew he was getting angry but I didn’t know, obviously, I didn’t know that he had anything on him.
“He was like ‘I don’t want to hurt you’ cos he thought we was gonna get angry, and then we carried on walking and then behind me, Elianne (and friends) – I heard them laughing and then Elianne ran up behind him as a joke and grabbed the bag as a joke and carried on laughing and then ran.”
Jurors have been shown CCTV footage of Elianne grabbing the Tesco bag from Sentamu, prompting him to chase after her.
“Hassan got mad and said ‘Oh you know what’ and lifted…”, she told police.
“She grabbed the thing, because I was annoyed because I wanted to go to school. He then lifted his hoodie quick, pulled out something, and I saw a big knife and I turned around for one second then saw her on the floor, trying to say stop basically with her hand out.”
Describing the immediate aftermath of the stabbing, the girl continued: “He was there, over her, bending.
“I turned around again and he was gone, and then we ran.”
She described “shouting and screaming” as the group of teenagers feared they were about to be attacked.
Sentamu has admitted stabbing to death Elianne, but denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to his autism diagnosis.
Prosecutor Alex Chalk KC told jurors on Monday that it is said Sentamu acted out of “white hot anger” because he had been publicly disrespected by girls.
Sentamu was seen on camera disposing of the knife, and was arrested around 90 minutes after the stabbing.
He had taken the number 64 bus towards his home in New Addington, and went confronted by police officers he had blood on his hand.
Sentamu initially claimed his name was “John”, but he was quickly identified by his Oyster card.
PC Peter Nolan told the court: “I believed what I saw was a smear of blood on his thumb.”
He told jurors he called for evidence bags to put over the handcuffed suspect’s hands before he was put in a van and taken into custody.
Sentamu, who was studying sports science at Croydon College, has admitted manslaughter but denied Elianne’s murder. He also denies a charge of having a blade, claiming he had a “lawful reason” for carrying it.
The trial continues.