A teenager stabbed his former friend to death outside a 16th birthday party allegedly due to a row over a tracksuit, a court heard.
The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sliced a 15cm kitchen knife into Charlie Kutyauripo’s heart outside Ashton Playing Fields, in Woodford Bridge, on January 9 just after 9.30pm.
Charlie, also 16, was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital, in Leytonstone, but died within the hour.
The trial of the defendant, charged with murder, started yesterday at the Old Bailey.
Opening the prosecution’s case Louis Mably QC told the court that Charlie, of Collier Row Lane, Collier Row, and his attacker used to be friends.
“The defendant and Charlie did know each other, in fact they used to be very good friends.
“But they had a serious falling out,” he continued.
“It happened towards the end of last year. One witness said they had fallen out over something as simple as a tracksuit, which Charlie had lent to the defendant and he had not released it back.”
The court heard that on the night of the stabbing, former King Soloman pupil Charlie and his friends arrived at the party around 8.50pm.
They were dressed in white, as everyone at the 100-strong birthday bash was to be covered in neon paint later on.
There was a DJ playing at the sports hall in Chigwell Road, and parents were monitoring guests.
Mr Mably told the Old Bailey that the defendant arrived at 9.33pm, with four friends who were not invited to the party.
In CCTV footage shown to the jury, the defendant and Charlie walk down a road at the side of the sports hall.
The teenager then turns around and stabs Charlie in the chest knocking him backwards, just five minutes after arriving at the party.
The footage shows the defendant then stabs Charlie again in the shoulder, before the wounded 16-year-old hobbles towards the entrance to the sports centre where he collapsed.
The prosecutor told the court: “The first stab wound, this was the fatal stab wound, went to his chest.
“It had gone into his chest, sliced into his lung causing it to collapse going into his heart.
“It sliced open the left ventricle. The depth was about 15cm.”
Five of Charlie’s family members sitting in the well of the court burst into tears when the footage was first shown.
Jurors heard that the defendant threw the knife away before fleeing Ashton Playing Fields, running down Chigwell Road towards Woodford Green.
DNA matching Charlie and the defendant was found on the knife, the court heard.
Police lost track of the teenager after the incident, but he was arrested on February 1 in Margate, Kent, for a separate offence and handed over to the Metropolitan Police.
Mr Mably explained that the defendant did not deny stabbing Charlie, but that “self-defence and intent” were the main issues.
The boy, from Seven Kings, denies the charge. The trial continues.
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