Teen ‘who killed homeless man’ in Kent says ‘it was funny’

Alex Macdonald and Charlie White, both 19, and Jimmy Buckley, 20, allegedly beat 21-year-old Razvan Sirbu (pictured) to death near the tent where he lived

A teenager accused of killing a homeless man told a court he kept beating his victim in the face because he ‘thought it was funny’.

Alex Macdonald and Charlie White, both 19, and Jimmy Buckley, 20, allegedly beat 21-year-old Razvan Sirbu to death near the tent where he lived.

The trio are said to have attacked their victim after coming across him late at night on May 6 in Tovil, Kent, where he lived in woodland.

Prosecutor Philip Bennetts QC said the group was heard discussing the attack at a skate park the following day.

White was allegedly overheard by a friend allegedly asking Macdonald which of the pair had killed Razvan, with Macdonald saying that he did.

They claim White asked Macdonald why he had kept beating their victim in the face, to which Macdonald replied: ‘Cos I thought it was funny.’

A jury at Maidstone Crown Court heard that Razvan’s body, clothed apart from shoes, was discovered at about 7am the next morning by a dog walker.

A wooden chair leg he was thought to have used for protection was between his legs.

Razvan’s cause of death was given as blunt force trauma to the head and torso, with multiple skull fractures, multiple facial bone fractures and broken ribs.

The young man was last seen on CCTV walking towards his tent at 6.51pm, with the gang seen walking nearby just after 11pm.

The morning after the attack, a coat Macdonald was wearing was recovered from a caravan, and had both the victim’s blood and the suspect’s DNA on it.

A teenager – who can’t be named – told police the boys were talking in code at the skate park, and White took her for a walk after she asked what was going on.

The trio are said to have attacked their victim after coming across him late at night on May 6 in Tovil, Kent, where he lived in woodland (pictured)

The trio are said to have attacked their victim after coming across him late at night on May 6 in Tovil, Kent, where he lived in woodland (pictured)

He started to cry, claiming the group had gone to meet a man about selling a lawnmower, and said he had taken a blunt meat cleaver with him in case there was trouble.

But he said saw his friends involved in an altercation with Razvan and hit him on the shoulder with the cleaver.

White added that he hit the man six or seven times, but not in the face or head, and denied killing him.

In a statement, he said: ‘I was making my way to the garden and I heard shouting from behind me, so I hurried back.

‘Upon arrival I could see a man speaking a foreign language holding what looked like a machete, but I believe now it was a lump of wood.

‘He was threatening them with it, and when he saw me he turned and came towards me.

‘I struck him with the blunt item two or three times only to protect myself as he had a weapon.

‘From this point, I did not strike him again with anything. I played no further role.

‘I did not entice anyone to strike him further either.

‘The following morning I was at the skate park. I did set fire to a top. This was not my top.

‘Someone else asked me to burn it for them, and I did.’

Mr Bennetts said White’s cousin, Chelsea Lingham, received a text from him on May 6 at 11.19pm saying: ‘Ring ASAP.’

He sounded desperate when she called him, and he said: ‘Alex has just beat someone with a lump of wood. I need to get out of Tovil.’

When arrested at his home, Buckley gave a prepared statement which said: ‘I have learning difficulties and special needs. I’m not guilty of the killing of Razvan Sirbu.’

White and Macdonald deny murder, but Buckley has been found unfit to plead and the jury will have to decide whether he ‘did the act’.

The trial continues. 

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