Girls feared their pal's ex would 'kill them all' hours before death

A group of schoolgirls feared that their friend's 'crazy' ex would 'kill them all' the night before one of them was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife, a court heard.

Elianne Andam, 15, was killed when she showed 'solidarity' with her friend who had turned up to collect a cuddly toy from her ex-boyfriend, 18-year-old Hassan Sentamu.

She grabbed back Sentamu's belongings which her friend had given him because he failed to bring the bear to the meeting near the Whitgift Centre in Croydon on 27 September 2023.

He exploded in a 'white-hot' fit of rage at the schoolgirl and 'got mad', chased her down the street and repeatedly stabbed her, jurors were told.

Sentamu brought a knife to the scene after the girls had splashed him with water the day before, and he stabbed the Year 11 pupil in the neck.

As she collapsed outside the Whitgift Centre in central Croydon, south London, Sentamu fled - dumping the knife in nearby Cedar Road.

He was arrested within 90 minutes after a police officer stopped a number 64 bus near his home in New Addington.

He admits manslaughter by diminished responsibility but denies murder, claiming he lost control of himself because of his autism.

Jurors were today shown a pre-recorded interview with one of Elianne's friends.

She said that the day before the killing, they met Sentamu in the Whitgift Centre because his ex-girlfriend wanted an apology.

She said: 'Someone said just give her an apology and we go, because [the ex-girlfriend] kept on mentioning how he screamed at her on a previous day so she was looking for an apology.'

Sentamu had previously told the girl to 'shut the f**k up', jurors have heard.

She said they left Sentamu and his ex-girlfriend to speak but Sentamu's friend told the girls 'lets not go too far because you don't know what Hassan is capable of.'

She said Sentamu's friend had told them previously and on that day that Sentamu was 'crazy'.

'He said multiple times Hassan doesn't act rationally, he's got anger issues,' she said.

'We let them talk for maybe seven minutes then [the ex-girlfriend] was walking back over and someone said did he apologise and she said no.'

She said they then 'told off' Sentamu for what he had said to his ex-girlfriend.

'He just sat there saying he didn't care, he just kept saying I don't care. He was a bit nonchalant, he didn't really care.'

He said his ex-girlfriend threw water at him and someone else did too.

She said that after the water was thrown they ran away because she thought Sentamu might 'do something'.

'I said "guys let's go I'm scared", I thought he was gonna do something, I was like "let's go let's go".'

She said she thought Sentamu would run after them but he did not. She said Sentamu did not react to having water thrown on him and 'accepted it', passing his phone to his friend so it did not get wet.

The youngster said people were insulting his appearance, saying his lips were dry and he was cross-eyed.

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'We all kept our distance because it was mentioned so many times by [his friend] to just be careful.

'If he'd hit one of us that day we wouldn't have been surprised, not one of us would have been surprised.

'We were all prepared, we had all been warned I guess. We were all scared of Hassan, he was just an odd character, we were all scared of him.'

In a video taken by the girl of the encounter at the shopping centre, the girls could be heard calling Sentamu 'ugly' and telling his ex-girlfriend to 'wet him', meaning throw water on him.

When Sentamu seemed to accept the girls were going to throw water on him, Elianne could be heard saying 'you'd rather get wet than say sorry.'

She then said: 'What if it was acid in that bottle what would you do then?'

The girl said: 'That's not acid but what if it was, you would accept it cause you can't say a simple word.'

She said that after the encounter in the shopping centre all the girls in their group chat said they no longer wanted to go and collect the possessions with their friend the following day.

'Someone on the group chat said "he's going to kill you guys", "what if he kills you guys, he's scary".

'The way he was reacting was odd, he was just calm and stuff so we were like what if he's building up his anger and then tomorrow he's just gonna come and just kill us all? We were making jokes out of it.'

She said one of the girls told the ex-girlfriend she should not go saying 'this is kinda scary'.

She said she told Sentamu's friend about their worries.

'He said 'I don't think Hassan would do that, he's a crazy boy but I don't think he would do that." He was just reassuring me nothing would happen.'

The girl and Elianne eventually decided they would join their friend the next day.

Sentamu, of Croydon, denies murder and having a bladed article in a public place.

The trial before Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb was adjourned until Monday.