A clubber who chased a talented rugby player down the street and knifed him to death is facing 25 years in jail.
Former Kingstonian FC player Daniel Namanga, 19, was murdered on Ilderton Road in Peckham, southeast London.
The victim known as ‘Loni’, was seen on CCTV talking to his attackers just moments before he was set upon by 22-year-old Dickson Tangu.
Former Kingstonian FC player Daniel Namanga (seen here in an undated photo) was stabbed to death on Ilderton Road in Peckham, southeast London
Mr Namanga had been at the Afrikiko club on the Old Kent Road shortly before he died in the early hours of August 8, 2017.
The nightclub had its licence suspended for three months after the attack.
Tangu denied murder and possessing an offensive weapon but was convicted by a jury at Inner London Crown Court after just three hours of deliberations.
Family and friends in the public gallery stood up and held their heads in their hands.
One of their number struck an automatic door near the court entrance so hard the glass smashed.
Security were on the scene quickly to place a cordon around the shattered glass.
Throughout the case there had been heightened emotions and Judge Usha Karu warned: ‘I must say I will tolerate no disruption in my court.
‘I am postponing sentencing until Friday the 9th of February so the defendant, who faces 25 years in prison, is not shocked.’
Earlier she said: ‘There are no winners and losers in a case like this which involves tragedy.’
Prosecutor Michael Holland told how Tangu was seen making a ‘swift jabbing motion’ towards the victim’s chest before he ran back to his friends.
Mr Namanga ran back towards his friends and said, ‘I’ve been stabbed’ before he collapsed outside the nightclub’s doorway just after 2am.
‘The injury was a forceful one and it penetrated one of the four chambers of his heart,’ said Mr Holland.
The victim known as ‘Loni’, was seen on CCTV talking to his attackers just moments before he was set upon by 22-year-old Dickson Tangu (pictured)
‘Mr Namanga briefly ran away from his attacker before collapsing within seconds of the blow being inflicted.
‘Members of the public attended to him at the scene as did police and doctors.
‘He was pronounced dead 48 minutes after he had been stabbed, at 2.50am.’
The court heard the victim had bumped into his attacker earlier in the evening and had a conversation with his group in the smoking area.
Mr Holland said Tangu arrived as part of a group of four in a black Vauxhall Astra and parked nearby.
The victim had already been in the nightclub for around an hour and a half.
Tangu was clearly seen on CCTV wearing ‘distinctive clothing’ including a loose-fitting grey hoody and had a ‘man bag’ over his left shoulder along with a pair of Nike trainers.
The killer and his group of revellers bumped into the victim, the court heard.
‘Whether they bumped into him by coincidence or if the meeting was pre-arranged we can’t say,’ Mr Holland said. ‘They clearly had things to say.’
Within a couple of minutes Tangu and his group went upstairs and were talking in the smoking area.
Tangu left the club at 1.51am with Mr Namanga leaving several minutes afterwards.
‘Clearly the discussion that took place in the smoking area had not concluded,’ said Mr Holland.
‘And then something happens and the incident becomes heated, and members of the group suddenly lash out at Mr Namanga.
‘On CCTV you can suddenly see Mr Namanga sprinting away from this, away into the road back in the direction of the nightclub.
‘He’s chased by two or three members of the group.’
There was an ‘exchange of blows’ and ‘punches were thrown’, Mr Holland said.
‘One witness says that Mr Namanga was struck by a bottle to the shoulder or head area,’ he added. ‘Either punches or a bottle, but that is what happens at that stage.’
He said there was a brief altercation which included another man, Jonathan Sambol.
Mr Namanga, 19, had been at the Afrikiko club on the Old Kent Road (seen here in a file photo) shortly before he died in the early hours of August 8, 2017
‘It’s a very brief exchange of blows, in the couple of seconds after it takes place, Jonathan Sambol is pushed away by the deceased in the car park.’
The court heard friends of Mr Namanga tried to hold him back away from the group.
Mr Holland said: ‘Initially he calms or appears to be relatively calm.
‘He’s talking with others in the car park, but after a while he becomes vexed as a result of the assault that Mr Sambol has just perpetrated.’
Mr Namanga grabbed a broom stick leaning against a wall and breaks it into two pieces. He starts to wave it at Samuel and Tangu, who start to run towards him.
The victim ran backwards up the road, chased by the pair, until he trips over a car tyre and falls to the floor.
‘Mr Samuel runs up to him, grabs the stick out of his hand and Mr Tangu arrives a split second later,’ the prosecutor said.
‘What he does is he can be seen to make a swift jabbing motion forward into Daniel Namanga’s chest area.
‘It’s clear that he had just inflected the fatal stab wound to the chest.’
As Mr Namanga ran back to friends outside the club, the other group ran back towards a Vauxhall Astra and fled the scene.
Tangu was arrested on 11 August at his home address in south Norwood, south London.
A post mortem carried out on 8 August gave the victim’s cause of death as a single stab wound to the chest.
Mr Namanga, lived with his family in Morden, south London, and went to Rutlish School in Wimbledon and later studied Richmond College.
Tangu, of Croydon, south London, denied but was convicted of murder and possessing an offensive weapon.
He was remanded in custody ahead of sentence on 9 February.