Scotty Kouebitra stabbed and killed in attack in Croydon

A masked gang stabbed a recruitment consultant to death and seriously injured two other men on Halloween in a ‘futile and completely senseless attack’, a court heard today.

The eight attackers took just two minutes to pull up in two cars, run towards Scotty Kouebitra, 22, and his friends, attack them with knives and a screwdriver and then drive off again, jurors heard.

Mr Kouebitra, from Sutton, collapsed in the front garden of a house in Gloucester Road, Croydon, south London, and bled to death from wounds to his neck and chest.

Scotty Kouebitra, 22, was stabbed to death on Halloween night last year while in a Croydon park with friends 

Scotty Kouebitra, 22, was stabbed to death on Halloween night last year while in a Croydon park with friends in what prosecutors have described as a ‘futile and senseless attack’

The Old Bailey heard that eight individuals, including a teenage boy attacked three men including Mr Kouebitra near a park in Croydon, south London on October 31, 2015

The Old Bailey heard that eight individuals, including a teenage boy attacked three men including Mr Kouebitra near a park in Croydon, south London on October 31, 2015

Two other men, Keith Hawker and Abdi-Jamal Abdilahi, were also stabbed during the rampage at around 8.10pm on 31 October last year.

Prosecutor Louis Mably told the Old Bailey: ‘This was a futile and completely senseless attack.

‘The evidence does not reveal what lay behind it.

‘The evidence doesn’t reveal whether the three people that got stabbed were the intended victims or whether they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

‘But whatever the position there was clearly no justification.’

A 17 year-old boy is accused of the murder alongside Aaron Jackson, 26, Jahliel Rose, 21, and Marcus Asemota, 22.

The teenager is said to be linked to the attack by the victim’s blood on his clothing.

Jackson is said to have driven one of the two cars, a black VW Golf, to the scene.

Rose later told police he had been ‘trick or treating’ with his sister, who had dressed up in a pointy witches hat, and had nothing to do with the attack.

But the evidence proves he was one of the occupants of Jackson’s car and had been at the scene.

Mr Hawker later told police he had been in the park off Gloucester Road setting off fireworks when he saw the group chasing Mr Kouebitra into the park.

‘Scotty was being chased by a group armed with baseball bats,’ said Mr Mably.

‘Scotty turned and stood his ground as if to fight and two members approached and there was a struggle.’

Mr Hawker was stabbed in the leg before he managed to escape.

Mr Abdilahi, who knew Scotty, was a passenger on a moped driving past the park when he was attacked and stabbed in the stomach.

Mr Kouebitra was attacked for a second time in the street before staggering to the garden in Gloucester Road where Mr Hawker had sought refuge. 

CCTV captured the gang driving around the area 25 minutes before the murder, the court heard.

Mr Mably said: ‘They had been cruising around Gloucester Road either looking for something or someone or conducting reconnaissance of the area in which this attack was going to take place.’

The two cars were then seen on a nearby industrial estate carrying out ‘preparations’ a few minutes before the attack.

Jackson was captured on CCTV getting out of his VW Golf to take off the front and back numberplates.

His fingerprint was also found on the back of one of the plates.

It is claimed Asemota was the driver of the second car used by the attackers, an Astra.

CCTV captured several attackers running after the moped ridden by Mr Abdilahi.

Another camera filmed Mr Kouebitra staggering across the road before collapsing in the garden.

Mr Mably said: ‘The evidence demonstrates they were members of this group and were working together to attack other people with weapons and cause really serious harm.

‘From the time the cars first pulled up to the time the cars pulled off was less than two minutes.

‘In that time the group was responsible for killing one man and seriously injuring two others.’ 

The first of the defendants to be arrested was the 17-year-old on November 8 last year.

Police seized a balaclava, Nike trainers and a grey camouflage snood which had blood spatter on it.

DNA on the stained snood and trainers were found to be a ‘one in a billion’ match to Mr Kouebitra, the court heard.

Mr Mably said it meant the youth was ‘close enough to the victim or the knife to get spots of wet blood on his clothes’.

The teenager had been the subject of a court-ordered curfew of 8pm and 7am. But the sensor on his ankle tag revealed he did not return home until after the murder, the court heard.  

The boy, who was then 16 but has since turned 17, was wearing an electronic tag around his ankle which recorded when he arrived or left the property.

It revealed he only returned home to Wallington at 8.48pm – more than half an hour after the attack – before heading to a KFC restaurant.

When he was arrested on November 8 he said the murder ‘was nothing to do with him’, the court heard.

But police found a bloodstained grey camouflage snood, bloodstained Nike trainers and a balaclava at his home.

DNA samples taken from the stains matched the profile of the victim Scotty Kouebitra.

Prosecutor Louis Mably said: ‘The scientific evidence indicated that he was close enough to the victim or close enough to the knife to get spatters of wet blood on his clothes.

‘It does appear that the snood and the trainers were what he was wearing at the time of the attack.’

CCTV footage of him after the attack also captured him carrying what appeared to be a balaclava.

Mr Mably added: ‘Had he abided by the curfew he couldn’t have been at the scene of the attack.’

Jurors heard the teenage attacker was in frequent contact with Rose by mobile phone on the day of the murder. 

Jackson, of, South Norwood, Rose, of no fixed address, the 17 year-old and Asemota, of Bromley, all deny murder and two counts of wounding with intent. 

The trial continues.

 

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